5. The three premises of „New Conservation‟ (Hulme & Murphree 1999)
• Decentralisation
Conservation should move from being state-centric to being more based in
society
Conservation rooted at the local level: empowerment and ownership
• Sustainable development
Both conservation and development goals at the same time NOT
“environmental imperialism”
Two extremes: Sustainable utilization vs. biodiversity fundamentalists
• Free market thinking
Uniqueness and scarcity of species will lead to high economic values being
placed on them likelihood of conservation greatly improved
6. Resources CBO
Cultural (people) Accountable
Natural (e.g. elephants) and legal entity
Com m unity
use benefits for
wider development goals
Governm ent
CBNRM policy
Donors
Development funds for
tourism as livelihood option
Private Sector
Joint Venture
Partnerships
Bilateral Agreement
NGO
NGOs
1. Play essential role in formulation of
CBNRM policy, i.e. vesting of rights
2. Facilitate drafting of constitution spelling
out rights of community and responsibilities
of committee
3. Act as advisor to the community during JV
negotiations with PS
7. Strengths
• Have experience in working with local communities
• Can develop capacity at community level
• Have information about and access to specific market segments
• Advise communities during negotiations with private sector
• Lobby for more responsible tourism and interests of local communities
• Are able to identify and develop alternative livelihood options
• May have capacity to strengthen the role of disadvantaged groups
and weaknesses
• Lack sufficient business and marketing skills
• Lack professionalism in developing tourism products
• May offer only limited support due to dependence on external funding
• Values may conflict with commercial viability of CBT ventures
• Interests of NGOs and local communities may conflict
8. 49 semi-structured interviews in
four southern African countries
• NGOs 41%
• Academics 20%
• Private Sector 16%
• Government 15%
• Community 8%
Data analysis by means of
• Position analysis
• Agency analysis
Development of heuristics
• Ambivalence and inconsistency
• Self-narratives and own theories
• „C-families‟: causes, consequences and
conditions
• Gradual families: degree, intensity and
scope
• Process families: stages, phases and
progression
9. Powerful!
• Withhold participation
Overtly, e.g. boycotting meetings
Covertly, e.g. apathy, lack of enthusiasm
• Bargaining powers
Learnt to tell us what we want to hear
Sophisticated consumers of development
projects
Passive receivers Comparing support
organisations
of development aid based on highest perceived
value
(Self-)constructed Apparent incapability
as
discourse of dependency actual strategy of „lying low‟
Lack of interest „Wait and see‟ mentality due
to
experiences with outsider
intervention
Powerless?
• Passive
Incapability of taking initiative
No local leadership
• Disorganised
Inability to plan ahead
Limited understanding of their own
responsibilities
„Unwilling‟ „By
choice‟
10. Success
• Conceptual gap between implementers‟ and receivers‟ expectations and understanding of e.g.
benefits (example education)
• Monitoring and evaluation of CBT projects are weak, e.g. quantifying community benefits
• Redefining „a good partnership‟, e.g. need to recognise communities as credible partners and
no longer as „trouble‟
Participation
• Misconception that community members will automatically support CBNRM/ CBT initiatives
(collective vs. individual benefit)
• Opportunity cost, i.e. the high cost of participation
• Tourism favours already existing elites
Dependence
• Skills needed locally to meet Western style accounting and administration requirements
• Ambivalence of promoting self-reliance and full community empowerment vs. losing control
working themselves out of a job
• Disengagement strategies essentially need to be centred on the development agents
• The higher the level of local ownership the more support is needed
11. Dependency
Can heavily
expert/expat
led projects be
sustainable?
Sustainability
What constitutes a
successful CBT
project (and for
whom)?
Participation
Is active community
participation
a deal breaker?
