The Shifting Paradigms of Biodiversity Conservation in South Asia

South Asia, renowned for its rich biological heritage, is home to a quarter of the global human population and has been experiencing unprecedented biodiversity loss. Anthropogenic pressures are expected to rise in the coming decades, and how governance structures respond to them will be instrumental in preserving this biodiversity. In this paper, we provide an overview of the different conservation paradigms across South Asia and discuss how these can be strengthened. Nationwide networks of Protected Areas are the principal institutional tools wherein the State delineates landscapes for biodiversity conservation and denies or restricts people's rights to access space and resources. Since the 1970s, communities have partnered with the State and have also been involved in conservation initiatives by themselves. While State-led conservation has been invaluable in safeguarding biodiversity, it is exclusionary in terms of social justice and habitat heterogeneity. Conservation under State-community partnerships is inclusive in theory, but intrinsic power asymmetry is a limitation. Even completely community-driven biodiversity governance is stifled by inequity in access to resources. Moreover, these initiatives are usually too restricted in geographical scope to support viable populations of species and often have a lack of clarity regarding governance structures and monitoring. We suggest (a) implementing landscape-level conservation, (b) ensuring ecosystem representativeness, (c) providing further autonomy to local communities, (d) ensuring clarity on rules and regulations regarding decision-making authority and rights of access and benefit-sharing, and (e) multilateral collaborations across nations in the region to make conservation governance more effective in safeguarding both biodiversity and human well-being.