Livelihood Assessment of Households in Wetland of Manipur: A Micro-Level Study

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance known as Ramsar Convention was held at Denmark with an objective to protect and conserve wetlands’ ecosystem dependent upon it. The North Eastern Hill Region (hereafter; NEHR) of India is also a home to three Ramsar sites, viz., Deepor Beel in Assam, Loktak lake in Manipur and Rudrasagar in Tripura. It has been reported that people of Manipur are socially, economically, culturally and ecologically linked with the Loktak lake. It has been the source of water for domestic uses, generation of hydroelectric power, irrigation, habitat for several plants used as food, fishing ground for local people, fodder, fuel, medicines, biodiversity, recreation, etc. In the above context, the present study has aimed to assess the livelihood of households in wetland of Manipur and also to identify the determinants of livelihood strategy on the basis of livelihood assets. Primary data were collected from four villages under Moirang block of Bishnupur district. Livelihood assessment framework comprising human, physical, financial and social assets indicators were estimated. The households were then classified based on the estimated indices. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression model was applied to understand the determinants of livelihood strategy on the basis of different livelihood assets. It was reported that maximum number of the households has moderate human (44.44 per cent), financial (44.44 per cent) and social assets (39.68 per cent). However, 42.86 per cent of the households were having low physical assets. Overall, 46.03 per cent of the households has moderate livelihood assets, followed by high livelihood assets (30.16%) and 23.81 per cent of the households belong to low livelihood assets. Moreover, the households’ livelihood in Ramsar site Loktak, were characterised based on four different components and it has been found that 100 per cent households engaged themselves in Component-1, 47.62 per cent in Component-2, 42.86 per cent in Component-3 and 9.52 per cent in Component-4. The multinomial logistic regression model estimated further explained that financial assets were the most important asset in adopting the livelihood strategies whereas; social assets could increase the chance of adopting other livelihood strategies apart from fishing in the study area. The study concluded that proper management strategy of the area by the Government of Manipur has to be encouraged along with in depth research, interventions, action plans, proper monitoring and evaluation by different universities like Central Agricultural University (Imphal), Central University (Manipur) and other government and non-governmental organisations. Loktak Lake is a base for ecological and economic security, thus payments for ecosystem services for sustainable water management has to be encouraged and implemented.