This dissertation investigates the transformation of the district of Kinnaur in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalaya. I examine Kinnauri adaptation to political, economic, environmental, and social events of the last seven decades, including state intervention, market integration, and climate change. Broadly, I examine drivers of change in Kinnaur, and the implications of these changes on social, cultural, political, and environmental dynamics of the district. Based on findings from 11 months of ethnographic field work, I argue that Kinnaur’s transformation and current economic prosperity have been chiefly induced by outside forces, creating a temporary landscape of opportunity.

State-led interventions including land reform and a push to supplement subsistence agriculture with commercial horticulture initiated a significant agrarian transition beginning with India’s Independence. I provide detailed examination of the Nautor Land Rules of 1968 and the 1972 Himachel Pradesh Ceiling of Land Holding Act, and their repercussion on land allocation to landless Kinnauris. My findings suggest that despite the initial inequitable allocation of land under these reforms, 40 years after they were enacted, landless Kinnauris have predominantly become landowners. I illustrate how other socio-economic measures, including the construction of National Highway 22 through Kinnaur, access to wage labor, provision of government jobs and government promotion of commercial apple production, all converged to change the socio-economic condition of Kinnauris and better enable them to take advantage of state land programs.

Looking at climate change and its consequences on Kinnaur, I provide a contextualized examination of biophysical processes in conjunction with Kinnauri social dynamics and broader state structures of power and political economy. My research adds a new dimension to the field by showing how climate change may provide a temporary landscape of opportunity for marginalized people. I illustrate how climate change is shifting land use practices and changing patterns of agricultural production. Formerly non-arable land in the high altitude zone is being placed under apple production and this newly productive land is contributing to growing prosperity. Simultaneously, I examine the limitations of this prosperity and reasons to be concerned that it is only temporary. Kinnauri livelihood diversity has decreased with growing dependence on one cash crop, and Kinnaur is therefore highly vulnerable to fluctuating markets and weather conditions. I suggest that livelihood diversification may provide important protection for Kinnauri prosperity.

In focusing on Kinnaur’s social dimensions and livelihood sustainability, I argue that the integration and expansion of the market economy is linked to changing social structures in Kinnaur. I examine the evolving human-environment dynamics by discussing the evolution of the traditional Kinnauri practice of fraternal polyandry, social networks of exchange and reciprocity, and the chilgoza pine nut, a traditionally important common pool resource in Kinnaur.

Large-scale migration of urban people seeking a better quality of life in rural places has generated considerable concern about “rural sprawl.” In a multimethod, fine-scale, longitudinal study of land ownership and use in Nevada County, we found that this quintessential “exurban” community reveals a complex story of interacting social and ecological change with some reasons for concern, but also optimism. Land-use data from 1957 to 2001 shows dramatic fragmentation of the county’s landscape as a result of increased residential use. The full scale of this transition is not visible because many parcels that are already zoned for further subdivision and residential use remain undeveloped. The related ecological changes have been mixed so far, with tree cover and riparian areas ?recovering from historic mining, ranching and timber harvesting. These changes are not incidental: many residential owners expressed a strong conservation ethic. However, ecologically harmful effects of increased residential use are present as well. In surveys and interviews, rural-residential owners revealed conflicting feelings about their changing landscape: most are concerned about preserving their quality of life and preventing the ecological impacts of further growth, but also do not want additional government regulations. Research on a fine scale into the cultural basis of ecologically beneficial and harmful rural-residential land-use practices can assist policymakers in crafting innovative and effective growth-management institutions.

My dissertation research is a case study of how the presence of an area protected for wildlife conservation can alter the livelihood options available to nearby rural communities, and an examination of the livelihood strategies that villagers deploy to cope with these conditions. Protected areas have become the primary approach to conserving biodiversity across the planet. While the modern protected areas movement dates back to the nineteenth century, conservation scientists have recently become increasingly concerned with measuring the social as well as ecological effects of land set aside for conservation. The large and growing body of "people and parks" literature examines the costs and benefits of protected areas for local communities. However, the net impact of a protected area is context-specific and is not always clear, and question of how protected areas affect livelihoods and human development remains widely and contentiously debated amongst social and natural scientists.

Using a political ecology framework, I explain in this dissertation how the Chobe National Park has influenced rural livelihoods in the northern region of Botswana, a country that is notable for its status as a relatively well-functioning welfare state, and its long history of rural-urban socio-economic linkages. Specifically, I chronicle the agrarian livelihood strategies of smallholder farmers living on the edge of Chobe National Park in northern Botswana--a place where the state has prioritized wildlife conservation but also provides support to residents' livelihoods in a number of ways. In Chobe, agricultural production is becoming increasingly challenging even as the government increases its agricultural subsidies and support to small farmers. I show that it is conservation policy rather than the prioritization of commercial farming that hurts small-scale agriculture and causes some farmers to shift livelihood activities.

I also demonstrate how restricted-use rights over wildlife, limited ways to participate in the mandated community wildlife management regimes (called community trusts) and a dearth of realistic revenue-generating wildlife-based opportunities for villagers make wildlife a relatively inaccessible source of livelihood support. Norms regarding wildlife as the property of the state, in conjunction with sources of livelihood support that are easier for households to access - namely remittances from urban kin and state transfers - undermine the creation of effective community-based natural resource management regimes.

Throughout my dissertation I emphasize that the Chobe National Park and the Chobe Enclave villages do not exist as bounded insular units of analysis and instead are better understood as nodes in a web of social relations and connections that extend beyond the physical boundaries of the region. This recognition draws directly from insights made by critical geographers that provide a theoretical understanding of place that is extroverted and aware of its links with the wider world. Much of the people and parks research has focused on social and economic outcomes for communities living on the edges (e.g., buffer) of protected areas. However, the economic and social effects of protected areas are not limited to their borders and can affect human dynamics hundreds of miles away. I discuss linkages between rural and urban communities to create a more complete picture of the way in which protected areas can affect human populations, even those living far from park borders. I show that the overall net growth around Chobe NP's edges does not preclude out-migration from certain buffer areas. Human movements towards, away from and within the Chobe National Park buffer zone have altered the demographic composition of rural villages and contributed to a new spatial patterning of people and associated livelihoods.

Ultimately, this study looks at how a park affects who lives where, and what the implications of such settlement patterns are for livelihoods, land use, and social relations in a web of interconnected geographical areas. In illustrating these dynamics, this work contributes to a rich body of literature that examines the context-dependent mechanisms through which a protected area can alter socio-economic development and in turn, the ecology and biodiversity of a rural landscape.