National Parks, coffee and NTFPs: the livelihood capabilities of Adivasis in Kodagu, India

Poovamma faces another day without paid work. Normally, at this time of year she would be working in the lower valley weeding coffee plantations, but that employment has dried up since the crash in global coffee prices. Years ago, she might have gathered medicinal herbs and green manure in the surrounding forests, but available forest areas are becoming scarce, and park rangers restrict those activities in the remaining forested areas. Her husband, fortunately, is working for one of their patrons this week, pruning shade trees in coffee orchards: men generally do the pruning. Poovamma has been waiting for rain for several weeks now. Once it rains she can get work in the local rice paddy farm, since rice farmers prefer women laborers to transplant rice plants. Tomorrow, she will go to another farm where ginger is cultivated in rice paddies to offset the decline in coffee prices. She decides to spend the morning clearing bushes around the family's house. Since she does not have ownership title on this land inside the boundaries of the National Park, this is a task best done little by little, so as not to attract attention from Park guards. In the afternoon, she goes to a site outside the Park where the village Panchayat (government) is building a kindergarten for children in the tribal area. The Panchayat initiated this project because of Poovamma's persistent efforts as a member of the Panchayat. While returning from the project site, she will bring a head-load of dead and dried twigs for cooking and heating water. She collects firewood during the evening to avoid harassment by forest guards. As in the rest of the world, environmental change is transforming this little tribal area in Kodagu, India where Poovamma makes her living. The transformations of forest to coffee plantation, forest to national parks, and rice paddies to ginger farms bring with them transformations in local livelihood possibilities. Institutional factors ranging from the family structure to village politics to forest policies to global trade agreements shape people's livelihood outcomes. As a social actor, Poovamma has various roles ranging from head of household to tribal woman to member of the local Panchayat. Each of these roles brings different livelihood possibilities and different environmental changes. Any inquiry into conservation and livelihood should address these relations among livelihood possibilities, environmental change, and institutional complexities. Indigenous communities in India are largely referred to as 'Adivasis', meaning original inhabitants. Adivasis like Poovamma in the Kodagu district in Southern India depend on forest resources and agriculture labor to sustain their livelihood. These two major livelihood sources have undergone changes over the years (Ambinakudige 2006). Aggressive conservation policies of the state and creation of Protected Areas have generally restricted Adivasis access to resources and pushed them to market economy (Langton 2005; Lele and Shrinidhi 1998). On the other hand, globalization and the commodification of agriculture have created uncertainties in the livelihood capabilities of Adivasis (Bawa et.al. 2007). Therefore, it is imperative to explore which institutional factors shape Adivasis' livelihood capabilities; how do those institutional factors operate at various scales? How do Adivasis cope with marginalization resulting from conservation policies, and the vagaries of the market economy? To answer these questions, this paper analyzes Adivasis' livelihood capabilities amidst conservation policies, the market economy, and various other institutional factors operating at global, regional, and local scales.