Avitourism opportunities as a contribution to conservation and rural livelihoods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya-a field perspective

The Hindu Kush Himalaya is a biodiversity hotspot subject to multiple anthropogenic stressors, including hydropower plants, pollution, deforestation and wildlife poaching, in addition to changing climate. Bird photography tourism, as a locally important element of avitourism, has the potential to integrate sustainable development and wildlife conservation. We conducted field surveys around the reaches of four Indian Himalayan rivers—the Kosi, western Ramganga, Khoh, and Song—outside of protected national parks (the Corbett and Rajaji tiger reserves) to ascertain the distribution of bird species along river corridors that could be sites of avitourism. Species richness along the surveyed reaches were: Kosi (79), western Ramganga (91), Khoh (52), and Song (79). This study contributes critical data to the existing baseline information on the avifaunal species of Uttarakhand. It further discusses the possibility of developing avitourism for knowledge generation on species distribution and innovative livelihood options for local communities in Uttarakhand, reinforcing local vested interest in bird conservation. The findings have generic applicability worldwide.


Communication Avitourism opportunities as a contribution to conservation and rural livelihoods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya -a field perspective
Nishikant Gupta, Mark Everard, Ishaan Kochhar & Vinod Kumar Belwal 26 August 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 10 | Pages: 14318-14327 DOI: 10.11609/jott.4911.11.10.14318-14327 INTRODUCTION Species conservation in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH henceforth) has often focused on megafauna. The Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris, Snow Leopard Panthera uncia, Indian Elephant Elephas maximus indicus, the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis, and Red Panda Ailurus fulgens are afforded the highest judicial protection, and are the prime recipients of conservation grants. Very little current information is available regarding the distribution in the HKH of previously reported species of birds (based on observations in the wild, visual signs, discussion with communities, unconfirmed reports). It is, however, reasonable to infer that pressures arising from increasing anthropogenic stressors (e.g., hydropower plants, pollution, deforestation, poaching) and changing climatic variables continue to have potentially significant impacts on multiple avian species (INCCA 2010;Shrestha et al. 2015;Alfthan et al. 2018). It is, therefore, critical that information regarding the distribution of birds is made a priority as they play important and diverse roles in the structure, functions and ecosystem services of food webs (Sekercioglu et al. 2004).
Environmental indicators serve important roles in conservation responses and land-use management by constituting simplified summaries synthesising multiple datasets or specific pieces of information within complex systems (Jackson et al. 2000). Birds are perceived as useful environmental quality indicators owing to their conspicuousness and mobility, the scale at which they utilise landscapes, as well as their diversity, roles in food webs, integrated responses to multiple pressures, association with specific habitat types and public appeal (Gregory et al. 2004(Gregory et al. , 2005. Bird indicators, therefore, provide valuable tools for assessing ecosystem health including in wetland and freshwater systems. One such indicator has been developed for this purpose in Britain (Everard & Noble 2010).
Avitourism, where birdwatching is the primary motivation of a trip, has gained momentum as a niche of nature-based tourism products for birders, conservationists and photographers alike (Connell 2009;Cordell & Herbert 2002). This industry is experiencing a paradigm shift from historically localised birdwatching into a global market, in part due to the increasing affordability of travel (Steven et al. 2014). The avitourists are usually well-off and passionate people willing to travel greater distance just to see endemic and/or endangered species, a significant aspect of societal valuation of species diversity (Sekercioglu 2002).
Avitourism is consequently a rapidly expanding activity, especially in developing countries with high biodiversity. The passion and enthusiasm associated with this recreational pastime have ensured that birders travel to remote locations, bringing along with them livelihood opportunities for local people. There have been previous assessments on the potential development of avitourism globally (Steven et al. 2014). The potential impacts of birdwatching (Biggs et al. 2011;Puhakka et al. 2011), birdwatching destinations, birdwatching festivals, migration events, and their impacts on local people have been examined (Lawton 2009). The social perspective surrounding the activity (Cordell & Herbert 2002;Eubanks et al. 2004;Connell 2009), along with bird species fed artificially for tourism attraction (Jones 2011), have also been studied. As avitourism has huge potential to achieve win-win outcomes for local communities and the objectives of protected area managers, there is a need to establish locally specific interlinkages between birdwatching ecotourism, environmental conservation and economic co-benefits (Vas 2013).
The HKH is the world's most densely populated mountain range (Alfthan et al. 2018), but one that is subject to numerous anthropogenic threats. By the 2050s, temperatures across the region are projected to increase by about 1-2 °C, the monsoon is expected to become longer/more erratic, precipitation is projected to change by 5% on average, and the intensity of extreme rainfall events is likely to increase (Shrestha et al. 2015;Alfthan et al. 2018). These climatic factors are likely to have an adverse impact on the bird habitats across the region (Alfthan et al. 2018).
The HKH region is home to a rich assortment of avifaunal species, and many of these have established an important position in the psyche of local communities through cultural, traditional and religious associations (Singh et al. 2017). It is, therefore, important to involve the public, the private sector, and the government around common interests, which may enable cocreation of solutions to counteract the decline of bird populations, particularly for lesser known avian species (Hausmann et al. 2017;Watts 2018). Nonetheless, it is important to note that unsustainable development, unregulated tourism, and unnecessary feeding may have negative impacts on native bird species.
This study focuses on the current distribution of birds along four river corridors-the Kosi, western Ramganga (henceforth Ramganga River), Khoh, and Song-in Uttarakhand State of the Indian Himalayan region, focusing on river reaches outside protected areas (i.e., the core areas of Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves). It proceeds to discuss possible management responses to promote immediate protection and longterm conservation of birds in the region, including promotion of bird photography tourism as a potential livelihood option for local communities. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were undertaken to understand any ongoing avitourism efforts and livelihood benefits that occur here.

Study area
The field survey of river corridor birds focused on the state of Uttarakhand (30.0668° N, 79.0193° E), lying within the western region of the Indian Himalayan biodiversity hotspot (Gupta et al. 2015). Key characteristics of the four surveyed rivers, described in greater detail by Gupta et al. (2015), are outlined in Table 1 and illustrated in Fig. 1.
Members of communities in this region that engage in aspects of ecotourism provide multiple services such as tour guides, accommodation and food, transportation, and other necessary infrastructure for incoming tourists (Nishikant Gupta, pers. obs. 2010-2019.

Avifaunal survey
Field surveys were conducted by teams of three surveyors, travelling on foot along the banks of each of the four rivers to collect direct and indirect evidence of the presence of birds. Fieldwork was conducted pre-and post-monsoon, and in the winter months of 2018 and 2019. GPS locations of indirect and direct signs were recorded. Avian species were recorded at 20 independent sites using the line transect method (Chettri et al. 2005). Transect locations were selected based on the presence of bird signs (e.g., nesting sites, droppings). Surveyors walked in a transect parallel to the river, recording evidence of birds (seen by naked eye or with 10x50 binoculars or heard) in 500m sections. Each observation session lasted 60-90 minutes, each transect was surveyed three separate times, and the points travelled (and therefore sampled) were in a specific order, i.e., along the downstream of a particular river stretch. Where possible, birds were photographed. Standard published literature was used to identify bird species. Avifaunal surveys were limited by the dynamic and potentially hazardous nature of some study sites, and occurrence and detection of some bird species were constrained by season and time of the day due to variation in activity levels and behaviour among species (Bashir et al. 2012). It is important to note that the bird counts may be slightly different during this study, compared to the times that local avitourism operators would take birdwatchers out to look for birds. This could result in the authors missing some of the abundance and diversity of birds at peak dawn and evening hours as we avoided these hours for safety reasons.

RESULTS
The overall avian species richness from the four rivers was 136 (Table 2). Across the individual rivers, the species richness were as follows: Kosi = 79 species, western Ramganga = 91 species, Khoh = 52 species, and Song = 79 species. The data of avian species recorded (overall and from individual rivers) were visualised as a heat map, where the x-axis represented bird population trend, and the y-axis the IUCN Red List Status of Threatened Species. The bars represent the count of IUCN Red List Status and corresponding population trend (Figures 2 and 3). Of the overall avian species richness (N=136), 89% were seen (detected visually from river banks) within navigable distances from the villages and tourist-access points, characteristics that could make them the most suitable for avitourism and more general ecotourism in the area. In addition, 75% of the species could be photographed by surveyors in this study, adding extra potential avitourism value.

DISCUSSION
Avitourism research is significantly skewed towards the northern hemisphere, and North America in particular, as bird-related activities have constituted significant leisure activities among North Americans over the past century (Connell 2009). Mexico and Colombia, which collectively play host to over 1,900 bird species, are the topmost destinations for US birdwatchers, Table 1. Key descriptors of the four surveyed rivers in Uttarakhand.

River
Source and additional notes

14322
followed by Venezuela, Costa Rica and Panama (Maldonado et al. 2018). Many countries have thriving bird watching societies, which promote and sponsor trips to destinations where there is an abundance of bird life (Serkercioglu 2003). The socio-economic, ecological, gender and governance dimensions of the birdwatching tourism have been recorded previously (Callaghan et al. 2017). The values that people ascribe to rare or infrequently encountered species, however, have been studied to a lesser extent (Booth et al. 2011). Avitourism is an important tool with the potential to influence the psyche of local, rural communities and individuals towards a bird species. And it is important that these local communities continue to sustainably work towards increasing the experience of tourists visiting the area. This is because what attracts the birders' 'gaze' and explains the rationale behind their long-distance travel decisions are abundant bird species and good ecological conditions. In addition, reasonable cost, good hospitality of local villagers, and easy approval procedures for entry into birdwatching areas are also important determinants.
Focus group discussions (FGDs) undertaken with village members (N=126), ornithologists (N=5), conservationists (N=10) and bird guides (N=15) in the surveyed areas of Uttarakhand (Nishikant Gupta, per. obs. 2019) revealed that a total of 76% of local households (N=156; 15-65 years; 125 males, 31 females) showed interest in participation in one or more forms of avitourism services if they strengthened livelihood opportunities (when asked regarding the potential applicability of avitourism in their area). Respondents were informed that it is essential to: (a) understand the ecological impacts of feeding to attract birds for tourists, (b) promote organic farming in order to minimise the use of pesticides and fertilisers, (c) regulate the tourist conduct, (d) enhance local environments, and (e) improve the services provided by homestay entrepreneurs (accommodation providers). Ninety-six percent of the respondents revealed that, if sustainably managed, the tourism revenue generated through this activity could protect critical species, economically help the local communities, and potentially lessen the outmigration of men from rural to urban areas seeking  better employment opportunities (see Everard et al. 2019 for discussion of outmigration pressures in the Indian Himalaya). Avitourism can be a cost-effective way to simultaneously create jobs whilst delivering conservation and human development benefits (Biggs et al. 2011), as birdwatchers are willing to travel to remote and lessdeveloped locations, providing livelihood opportunities to areas that hold unique or locally characteristic bird resources. Increasing the number of tourists and the socio-economic and ecological benefits they create also raise associated ecological challenges that will require sensitive management. It is also important to ensure that benefits accrue to local communities in addition to tour operators, if incentives for local conservation action are to be guaranteed (Everard & Kataria 2011). A comprehensive management plan (CMP) including avitourism, with support from local government for developing more scientific and sustainable approaches will become essential in the coming years.

CONCLUSION
One of the key highlights of this work was that it was undertaken outside of the two critical protected areas of the region: Corbett and Rajaji tiger reserves ( Figure  1). Avitourism performed outside of protected areas has the potential to assist in protecting bird habitats that are not subject to such a high level of statutory protection, and spreading societal benefits and tourism pressures including reducing disturbance to threatened species within the protected areas (Basnet et al. 2019). Such supportive benefits have also been previously reported from southern Poland, where riverine habitats constitute biodiversity hotspots for migratory birds (Figarski & Kajtoch 2015). It is important to note that birdwatching tourism is dependent upon the diversity and visibility of species in the target destination, with sightings of migratory birds, songbirds and birds of prey also in popular demand from avitourists (Maldonado et al. 2018). This fundamental requirement is compatible with conservation goals. Birdwatching activities at the study sites can not only boost the economic potential of the local community, but also help in the gathering of information on little known/Data Deficient species. Avitourism can, thus, make a significant contribution to the growing need for knowledge-gathering to support the conservation of species other than those with specific conservation designations or in formally protected areas (Whitelaw et al. 2014). www.threatenedtaxa.org The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservation globally by publishing peer-reviewed articles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All articles published in JoTT are registered under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise mentioned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of articles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.