COMMUNITY IN CONSERVATION

AFRICA

GENERAL

Alpert, P (1996). “Integrated conservation and development projects: examples from Africa.” BioScience 46(11): 845-855.

Amanor, K (1994). “Ecological knowledge and the regional economy: environmental management in the Asesewa district of Ghana.” Development and Change 25(1): 41-68.

This study examines perceptions of the environment in farming communities in the forest ecotone of Ghana. It places local knowledge within a socio-economic and historical context and argues that knowledge is continually evolving, attempting to solve existing problems and discovering new ones. It maintains that favourable conditions exist in farming communities for environmental actions and development approaches based on sustainable development, since these areas have suffered from the negative effects of degradation. However, major constraints exist within the wider political economy and policy framework, which is still locked into environmentally-hostile export-oriented production, and political models which marginalize rural people. (Journal)

Anderson, D and R. Grove, Eds. (1987). Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Andriamampianina, J (1985). Traditional land-use and nature conservation in Madagascar. in Culture and Conservation: The Human Dimension in Environmental Planning. JA McNeely and D Pitt, Ed. Kent, IUCN: 81-89.

Associates in Rural Development (1992). Case study annotations and USAID project descriptions. in Decentralization and Local Autonomy: Conditions for Achieving Sustainable Natural Resource Management, Vol. II, Appendix B. AiR Development, Ed. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development, Inc.

Associates in Rural Development (1992). Decentralization and Local Autonomy: Conditions for Achieving Sustainable Natural Resource Management. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development and USAID.

Barbier, EB (1990). The economics of controlling degradation: rehabilitating gum arabic systems in Sudan. Paper 90-03, London Environmental Economics Centre, London.

Barbier, EB (1992). Community-based development in Africa. in Economics for the Wilds: Wildlife, Wildlands, Diversity and Development. TM Swanson and EB Barbier, Ed. London, Earthscan: 103-135.

Barkan, JD and F Holmquist (1989). “Peasant-state relations and the social base of self-help in Kenya.” World Politics 41(3): 359-380.

Beinart, W and C Bundy (1987). Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics and Popular Movements in the Transkei and Eastern Cape,1890-1930. Berkeley, University of California.

Benjaminsen, TA (1997). “Natural resource management, paradigm shifts, and the decentralization reform in Mali.” Human Ecology 25(1): 121-143.

The mainstream view in natural resource management in African drylands has been that local people are responsible for natural resource degradation. Today, alternative views or new paradigms are emerging in several fields. These new paradigms, which support decentralization of

natural resource management, are discussed in relation to the ongoing decentralization process in Mall. During the colonial period, heavily centralized governments were installed in all the French colonies. This structure was maintained by Malian governments after independence. However following the recent transition to democracy, a decentralizing reform is being implemented It is presently not clear whether these reforms will lead to mere deconcentration, involving the redistribution of administrative responsibilities within the central government, or whether Mall is heading reward real decentralization, devolving decision making powers to local communities. The gestion de terroir approach, which may be a useful tool in achieving decentralization in farming communities, would, in pastoral areas, cause more damage than benefit. (Journal)

Bergdall, TD (1993). Methods for Active Participation: Experiences in Rural Development from East and Central Africa. Nairobi ; New York, Oxford University Press.

Berry, S (1989). “Social institutions and access to resources.” Africa 59(1): 41-55.

Biesele, M, D. Green, et al. (1992). Decentralization and natural resources management: Namibia field report. in Decentralization and Local Autonomy: Conditions for Achieving Sustainable Natural Resource Management, Vol. II. AiR Development, Ed. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development, Inc.

Blackwell, J, R Goodwillie, et al. (1991). Environment and Development in Africa: Selected Case Studies. Washington, D.C., World Bank.

Analyzes the environmental orientation and impact of bilateral and multilateral aid projects, as well as government initiated agricultural projects in Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. Provides an overview of the issues linking development and the environment. Analyzes agricultural production policies and their environmental impact in the case of Zambia. Discusses the issues of sustainable development, appropriate technology, community involvement, and monitoring for the cases of Sudan and Tanzania. Summarizes the issues and assesses successes and failures. Blackwell, Goodwillie, and Webb are Senior Research Officers in the planning division of the National Institute for Physical Planning and Construction Research, Dublin. (OVID)

Blaikie, P (1989). “Environment and access to resources in Africa.” Africa 59(1): 18-40.

Bratton, M (1989). “The politics of government-NGO relations in Africa.” World Development 17(4): 569-587.

Brokensha, DW and C Erasmus (1969). African peasants and community development. in Society for Applied Anthropology. Monograph no.10Ed, Ithaca, 1969: 85-100.

Chitere, OP, Ed. (1994). Community Development: Its Conceptions and Practice with Emphasis on Africa. Nairobi, Gideon S. Were Press.

Cooke, HJ (1981). “On the conservation of natural resources, with special reference to the Kalahari in Botswana.” Botswana Notes and Records 13: 141-143.

Crehen, K (1997). The Fractured Community: Landscapes of Power and Gender in Rural Zambia. Berkeley, University of Berkeley.

Cunningham, AB and SJ Milton (1987). “ Effects of the basket-weaving industry on Mokala palm and dye plants in northwestern Botswana.” Economic Botany 41(3): 386-402.

Dejene, A (1997). Land degradation in Tanzania: Perception from the village. Technical Paper, no. 370. Washington, D.C., World Bank.

Explores the most significant issues affecting levels of productivity and land quality at the community and village level, focusing on the case of Kondoa District, Tanzania. Examines farmers' perceptions, particularly their understanding and interpretation of factors and indicators that they link to soil erosion and fertility decline, the level of degradation of crop and pastureland, and the institutional capacity to implement social conservation and fertility measures--with particular regard to land tenure policies, local organizations, and extension service. Identifies the technologies, best practices, and indigenous knowledge used by households to control erosion, enhance soil fertility, and increase crop and livestock productivity among smallholders. Investigates the reasons for farmers adopting or not adopting recommended technologies. Summarizes major findings and presents policy implications. Coauthors are Elieho K. Shishira, Pius Z. Yanda, and Fred H. Johnsen. Dejene is a consultant and the coordinator of the Soil Fertility Initiative in the World Bank's Africa Region. (OVID)

Dennison, S and J Thomson (1992). Decentralization and natural resources management: Mali Field Report. in Decentralization and Local Autonomy: Conditions for Achieving Sustainable Natural Resource Management Vol II. AiR Development, Ed. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development, Inc.

Derman, B (1995). “Environmental NGOs, dispossession, and the state: the ideology and praxis of African nature and development.” Human Ecology 23( 2): 199-215.

Zimbabwe provides a significant context to examine the interplay of the new development rhetoric, the actions of powerful conservation organizations, donor policies, a relatively strong & stable government, & the empowerment of local communities. This interplay exists in diverse rural areas where the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) is in various stages of experimentation & implementation. CAMPFIRE has been described as a philosophy of sustainable rural development that enables rural communities to manage & benefit directly from indigenous wildlife. It is the best known of African efforts to permit communities to reassert their management of selected natural resources. The program has the official support of the Zimbabwean government. Nonetheless, there are many potential areas of serious conflict. Three case studies are utilized to explore the challenges of repossession of critical environmental resources by marginalized communities in the changing context of state & NGO (nongovernmental organization) relationships where international tourism is a revenue generator for both the private sector & government. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)

Djibo, H, C Coulibaly, et al. (1991). Decentralization, governance, and management of renewable natural resources: Local options in the Republic of Mali. in Final Report for Studies on Decentralization in the Sahel, Volume III. AiR Development, Ed. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development.

Dunn, JE (1997). “Responding to pressure on local natural resources: the story of three villages in south eastern Nigeria.” Journal of Environmental Management 51: 361-371.

Employing a model that predicts community response to pressure on local natural resources and drawing on data gathered between 1991 and 1993 in three villages in the tropical high forest zone of southeastern Nigeria, the writer tries to record the manner in which people respond and adapt to changing environmental conditions. He argues that with enough time, communities will usually develop new resource management and agricultural systems. However, he points out that where change is taking place swiftly, a facilitator is needed to promote and speed up local innovation in order that farming and natural resource management systems can be appropriately adjusted before acute environmental degradation occurs. (Econlit)

Elbow, KM (1994). Popular participation in the management of natural resources: lessons from Baban Rafi Niger. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.

Falloux, F and LM Talbot (1993). Crisis and Opportunity: Environment and Development in Africa. London, Earthscan Publications.

Fisher, B (1993). “Creating space: Development agencies and local institutions in natural resource management.” Forests, Trees and People Newsletter 22: 4-11.

Garcia-Zamor, J-C (1985). Public participation in development planning and management: cases from Africa and Asia. Boulder, Westview Press.

Gezon, L (1997). “Political ecology and conflict in Ankarana, Madagascar.” Ethnology 36: 85-100.

The writer employs the example of northern Madagascar to address textured analyses of multilevel political interactions and processes and to demonstrate their relationship to the regulation of control and use of the biophysical environment. Conflict concerning the question of land use in northern Madagascar demonstrates that political control is situational and that rights to resources are ambiguous. In two instances, local farmers, the regional royal indigenous leader, and international conservationists fought to obtain and preserve the ability to use and control the forested land to the west of the Ankarana massif. The complicated political discussions that are a vital aspect of all ecological interactions can be examined using political ecology as a theoretical framework. In acknowledging the complexity of such interactions, applied efforts to consider issues of environmental degradation and disenfranchisement may also become more potent. (Anthrolit)

Ghai, D (1993). “Conservation, livelihood and democracy: social dynamics of environmental change in Africa.” Osterreichische Zeitschrift fur Soziologie 18( 2): 56-75.

A social context for Africa's severe environmental degradation (soil erosion, pollution, desertification, etc) is described. Causes of the crisis include expropriation of resources, the influence of colonization on traditional land use, commercialization of agriculture, population growth, inappropriate patterns of settlement & infrastructure, & drought. Human consequences are the loss of livelihoods, particularly of peasants & herders, & the undermining of women's positions in food production & family upkeep. The solution is the integration of resource conservation & livelihood improvement, which will require the progressive transfer of responsibility to the local level, property reform, & the development of organizations of rural producers. International & national support is essential, but assistance should reinforce local efforts & respect community priorities. 67 References. Adapted from the source document. (Copyright 1994, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)

Guyer, J and P Richards (1996). “The invention of biodiversity: social perspectives on the management of biological variety in Africa.” Africa 66(1): 1-13.

Hackel, J (1990). “Conservation attitudes in Southern Africa : a comparison between Kwazulu and Swaziland.” Human Ecology 18(2): 203-209.

The opinions of rural people living near conservation areas have largely been ignored by conservationists. Several studies, however, have attempted to rectify this oversight, including two from southern Africa, whose findings can be compared. This paper examines the attitudes to nature conservation of people living near the Umfolozi-Hluhluwe Corridor Complex Game Reserve in southeastern South Africa with those of people living near the northeastern game reserve complex in Swaziland. Although the former study used a questionnaire survey and the latter semi-structured interviews, comparisons are possible because of common objectives. This paper concludes: (1) general support for nature conservation exists in both areas, (2) there is, however, little support for local conservation areas, (3) there appears to be little active hostility toward the conservation authorities managing protected lands, and (4) rural people's attempts to reconcile conservation and economic development are largely unsatisfactory. (Journal)

Hackel, J (1993). “Rural change and nature conservation in Africa: a case study from Swaziland.” Human Ecology 21(3): 295-312.

High population growth and deteriorating economic conditions imperil Africa's natural environment. Conservationists are trying to cope with the threat by working in rural communities. Yet it is unclear whether they can be effective when social and economic change in rural areas is so rapid. Northeast Swaziland provides a case study. The landscape has been transformed since the 1950s, and conservationists are the only people now giving nature conservation a high priority. Land uses incompatible with local nature reserves are supported because they provide jobs. Thus, conservationists find themselves facing a world where wildlife is increasingly devalued as the forces of change accelerate. This paper concludes: (1) conservationists must expand their influence into rural communities, (2) an integrated development and conservation plan is required for northeastern Swaziland, and (3) only the alleviation of poverty will secure the future of nature conservation in Swaziland as well as the rest of Africa (Journal)

Heermans, JG (1988). The Guesselbodi experiment: bushland management in Niger. in The Greening of Aid: Sustainable Livelihoods in Practice. C Conroy and M Litvinoff, Ed. London, Earthscan: 84-87.

Hitchcock, R (1993). “Africa and discovery: human rights, environment, and development.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 17(1): 129-152.

Hoben, A (1995). “Paradigms and politics: The cultural construction of environmental policy in Ethiopia.” World Development 23(6): 1007-1021.

Hobgood, H (1992). Facilitating transitions from centralized to decentralized politics. Sahel Decentralization Policy Report, Volume II. Washington, USAID.

Hough, JL (1984). “An approach to an integrated land use system on Michiru Mountain, Malawi.” Parks 9(3/4): 1-3.

Kandeh, HBS and P Richards (1996). “Rural people as conservationists: querying neo-Malthusian assumptions about biodiversity in Sierra Leone.” Africa 66(1): 90-103.

Knowles, J and D Collett (1989). “Nature as myth, symbol and action: notes towards a historical understanding of development and conservation in Kenyan Maasailand.” Africa 59: 433.

Kull, C (1996). “The evolution of conservation efforts in Madagascar.” International Environmental Affairs 8(1): 50-86.

The Indian Ocean nation of Madagascar is home to world-renowned levels of biological diversity, destructive trends of environmental degradation, and extreme poverty. International conversation action on

the island has accelerated at a dramatic rate since the 1980s, including the implementation of a national environmental action plan, several debt-for-nature swaps, and more than a dozen integrated conversation and development projects. This article reviews the evolution of international involvement in Madagascar and develops a conceptual model to explain this recent explosion in activity. The model suggests that the environmental context of megadiversity and severe degradation, the growing global environmental movement, and the political-economic situation of Madagascar are the ultimate factors behind international conservation action. The particular timing of the conservation boom can be explained by the proximate factors of environmental research, 1980s environmentalism, and 1980s politics, facilitated by awareness, individual actors, group co-operation, and economic incentives. The results of the boom are tangible, with new protected areas, improved reserve management, and soil conservation programs. Yet criticism abound regarding impacts on local residents and wasted money. Many would agree it is too early to judge the success of the conservation boom. (Author)

Lewis, DM and N Carter, Eds. (1993). Voices from Africa: Local Perspectives on Conservation. Washington, WWF.

Little, PD and DW Brokensha (1987). Local institutions, tenure and resource management in east Africa. in Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice. D Anderson and R Grove, Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Maddox, G, J Giblin, et al., Eds. ( 1996). Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania. London, Currey.

Nine papers trace the ecological history of Tanzania, exploring the relationship between environment and rural culture, and politics and economy. Juhani Koponen examines population trends in mainland Tanzania in the late precolonial and colonial periods. Gregory Maddox discusses environment and population growth in Ugogo. Isaria N. Kimambo focuses on environmental control and hunger in northeastern Tanzania. Christopher Conte presents an ecological history of the plateau forests of the West Usambara mountains. James L. Giblin addresses the precolonial politics of disease control. Pamela A. Maack considers protest and identity under the Uluguru Land Usage Scheme initiated in 1947. Michele Wagner evaluates environment, community, and history in nineteenth and early twentieth century Buha. Jamie Monson assesses canoe-building and colonial forestry policies, 1920-40. Thomas Spear explores the political and moral economies of land on Mount Meru. Maddox is at Texas Southern University. Giblin is at the University of Iowa. Kimambo is at the University of Dar es Salaam. (SSCI)

Manor, J (1995). “Democratic decentalization in Asia and Africa.” IDS Bulletin-Institute of Development Studies 26(2): 81-88.

This article summarizes recent research on one of the developmental fashions of our time - democratic decentralization. After discussing various definitions of 'decentralization', it surveys the benefits that can follow when democratic decentralization works well. Among these are greater responsiveness, increased participation and two-way information flow between state and society, and reductions in absenteeism by local-level government employees and in corruption. It reviews decentralization's limitations - notably its incapacity to facilitate poverty alleviation. It then examines problems which can prevent decentralization from working well. It helps enormously if a country attempting it has had a sustained experience of democracy, but that is not true in most of Africa and Asia. Finally, the article suggests approaches that can assist decentralization to work well - most crucially the provision of adequate powers and resources from above, and measures to ensure that bureaucrats will be accountable to elected representatives, and that representatives will be accountable to citizens. (SSCI)

Marc, A (1994). Community participation in the conservation of cultural heritage. in Culture and Development in Africa: Proceedings of an International Conference held at the World Bank, Washington, D.C., April 2 and 3, 1992. I Serageldin and J Taboroff, Ed. Washington, D.C., World Bank: 255-268.

Mascarenhas, A (1983). “Ngorongoro: a challenge to conservation and development.” Ambio 12(3/4): 146-152.

Moore, D (1996). A river runs through it: environmental history and the politics of community in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands. Harare, Working paper series, Center for Applied Social Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, and Program for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of Western Cape, South Africa.

Moore, D (1998). “Subaltern struggles and the politics of place: remapping resistance in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands.” Cultural Anthropology 13(3): 344-381.

Moore, DS (1994). “Contesting terrain in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands: political ecology, ethnography, and peasant resource struggles.” Economic Geography: 380-401.

In this paper, I rethink some of the conceptual tools of ''political ecology'' through an analysis of environmental resource conflicts in a state-administered resettlement scheme bordering Nyanga National Park in eastern Zimbabwe. Since 1987, state administrators and peasants have clashed over the expansion of the park's estate and a proposed protected river corridor running through the scheme. An ethnographic approach to peasant micropolitics emphasizes differences among state functionaries and peasants, whose relationships to the local landscape have been shaped by historical transformations in the regional political economy. Gender, in particular, mediates not only productive inequalities and access to resources but also the cultural construction of environmental resources. The analysis alternates between an ''event history'' and peasant historical consciousness - the construction of the remembered past in the present - arguing for the integration of political economy and cultural interpretation. This perspective emphasizes the simultaneity of symbolic and material struggles over resources, critically engaging a macrostructural bias manifest in many ''political ecology'' analyses of Third World resource conflicts. (Author)

Moore, DS (1996). Marxism, culture and political ecology: environmental struggles in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands. in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. R Peet and M Watts, Ed. London, Routledge.

Moore, DS (1998). “Clear waters and muddied histories: environmental history and the politics of community in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands.” Journal of Southern African Studies 24(2): 377-403.

This article examines competing struggles over the demarcation, implementation and multiple meanings of the proposed Kaerezi River Protected Area in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands. It focuses on the micro-politics, within a state-administered resettlement scheme bordering Nyanga National Park, whose 1987 extension precipitated the conflicts. Countering a tendency within environmental history to assume a monolithic 'state' in opposition to art undifferentiated 'community', the analysis emphasises shifting political alliances within, among and between state representatives and rural actors. Competing agendas among various ministries within the Zimbabwean government have encountered the salient differences of gender, generation, class, education and 'traditional' authority in Kaerezi, The analysis attends to grounded livelihood practices as well as the cultural idioms and historical resonances that affix particular meanings to the landscape and environmental resources. In particular, resettlement farmers deployed social memories of colonial evictions from the same property, articulated through the idiom of 'suffering for territory', to claim land rights in the 1990s. Competing cultural constructions of the landscape itself-a rainmaking territory, a chieftainship, a former colonial ranch and a resettlement scheme-have figured prominently in post-colonial conservation politics. Cultural politics-debates over the meaning and practice of 'custom' and 'tradition' as well as legitimate authority-are foregrounded to demonstrate the simultaneity of symbolic and material struggles over resources. In turn, these cultural contestations have animated the contours of environmental conflicts as well as the processes shaping the political boundaries of 'community' membership and resource rights. (SSCI)

Muir, K (1988). The potential role of indigenous resources in the economic development of the arid environments of Sub-Saharan Africa. Working Paper, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension. Harare, University of Zimbabwe.

O'Riordan, T (1998). “Sustainability for survival in South Africa.” Global Environmental Change-Human & Policy Dimensions 8(2): 99-108.

Sustainable development tends to be regarded in the North as a luxury item whose time may come, but not necessarily yet. In the South, for the most part, survival and the maintenance of social order seem to be the prime motives, and sustainable development, being regarded as essentially a northern agenda, continues to receive short shrift from politicians and community leaders. These are misleading generalizations, In South Africa, sustainable development is emerging in a host of ways, though the actual phrase itself has no political franchise. It is a country seeking to heal the deep wounds of apartheid through which blacks gain access to the levers of democratic power and economic change. It is a country that is slowly and painfully recreating an active civil society at the very heart of Its local government, backed by a powerful, but untested, constitution. It is a country that wishes to include environmental protection and resource conservation close to the centre of its policy and planning procedures. It is a country that recognises the significance of sustainability indicators as an index of environmental and social health, linked to economic opportunity. But it is also a country riddled by corruption, by dangerous levels of nepotism, by bureaucratic and managerial mismanagement, and by complex criminal syndicates that stir up almost endemic violence across the land. The relationship between global economic pressures, sustainability, and the maintenance of a democratic civil society remains a close call in South Africa. It is a drama that frames the sustainability transition in a myriad of paradoxes and tensions. As the drama is played out, sustainability, South Africa style, will have its course set out for it. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Osemeobo, GJ (1994). “The role of folklore in environmental conservation: evidence from Edo state, Nigeria.” International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 1: 48-55.

A number of wild biotic resources used by man for food, shelter, and cultural activities are now either rare, endangered or extinct. The problem of adequate protection for these resources stems from habitat loss and lack of adequate information on how biotic resources were sustained through traditional ecological knowledge in the past. This study investigated the significance of folklore on environmental conservation in the rainforest belt of Edo State, Nigeria. Data were derived from a questionnaire survey involving 400 respondents in six rural settlements between May and November, 1992. From the analysis of these data, most indigenous folklores influenced the conservation of the environment. Nevertheless, the changing religious beliefs of the people in a heterogeneous composition of settlements, market-based agricultural production, and changes in the recreational activities of young people have disintegrated the traditions on which the folklores were based. Thus, the role of folklore in biotic conservation has diminished considerably, even though it has ensured long-term preservation of the existing pockets of natural forests. (Author)

Peluso, N (1993). Coercing conservation: the politics of state resource control. in The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics. R Lipschutz and K Concac, Ed. New York, Columbia University Press.

International environmental agreements assume that nation-states have the capacity, internal legitimacy, and the will to manage resources within their territorial boundaries. Although many state agencies or factions may be interested in joining international

conservation interests to preserve threatened resources and habitats, some state interests appropriate the ideology, legitimacy, and technology of conservation as a means of increasing or appropriating their control over valuable resources and recalcitrant populations. While international conservation groups may have no direct agenda for using violence to protect biological resources, their support of states which either lack the capacity to manage resources or intend to control 'national' resources at any price, contributes to the disenfranchisement of indigenous people with resource claims. This paper compares two examples of state efforts to control valuable resources in Kenya and Indonesia. In both cases, the maintenance of state control has led to a militarization of the resource 'conservation' process. International conservation interests either directly or indirectly legitimate the states' use of force in resource management. (SSCI)

Peters, P (1996). “Who's local here: the politics of participation in development.” Cultural Studies Quarterly 20(3): 1-5.

Richards, P (1980). Community environmental knowledge in African rural development. in Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Development. D Brokensha, DM Warren and O Werner, Ed. Lanham, Md., University Press of America: 183-196.

Rocheleau, DE, PE Steinberg, et al. (1995). “Environment, development, crisis, and crusade: Ukambani, Kenya, 1890-1990.” World Development 23(6).

For over a century Ukambani, the home of the Akamba people, has been the object of intense scrutiny and repeated interventions by international and national ''experts.'' Outsider narratives have portrayed the region as a crucible for a series of crises, including human and livestock epidemics, ''overgrazing,'' soil erosion, low productivity, underdevelopment, fuelwood shortage, biodiversity loss, and threatened wildlife. Akamba farmers and herders recount a very different story in which land alienation, land hunger, and limits on mobility of people and their herds have restructured the ecological and spatial order of their homeland, to the benefit of some and the detriment of many. The history of crisis construction and resolution by outsiders, juxtaposed with the diverse experience of people within the region suggests that simple solutions to single problems may actually create new crisis, in Ukambani and elsewhere. (Journal)

Schmidt, PR (1994). Historical ecology and landscape transformation in eastern Equatorial Africa. in Historical Ecology. CL Crumley, Ed. Santa Fe, School of American Research Press.

Slayter-Thomas, B (1994). “Structural change, power politics and community organizations in Africa: Challenging the patterns, puzzles and paradoxes.” World Development 22(10): 1479-1490.

This paper explores two phenomena shaping processes of local institutional and organizational change in rural Africa. The first is the complexity of institutional layering and dissonance in which local organizations and institutions in rural Africa coexist. The second is the paradox often found in state local relations in Africa. Central governments encourage local communities to take on responsibilities which the center cannot manage. Should significant organizational strength emerge at the local level, however, central powers often move expeditiously to destroy it. Illustrative material comes primarily from Kenya and Zimbabwe and selectively from several other countries. We ask what new structures are emerging and what old ones are being adapted to new functions. We argue that local organizations are critical for addressing ecological decline and restoring the productivity and sustainability of rural Africa. Both localities and national governments have much to gain if the capacities of local organizations can become, themselves, a valued resource in the resource-scarce setting comprising much of rural Africa. (Journal)

Slayter-Thomas, BP (1992). “Implementing effective local management of natural resources: new roles for NGOs in Africa.” Human Organization 51(2): 136-144.

Sustainable development seems an elusive objective for Africa's rural peoples, yet there are unique opportunities for non-governmental organizations in Africa to work toward that goal. NGOs can facilitate this effort by strengthening institutional capacities at the local level. Several factors, however, impede NGO effectiveness. Among them are 1) issues surrounding NGO needs for autonomy and Government needs for control; 2) problems in "scaling up" NGO efforts and creating the necessary micro-macro linkages; and 3) confusion over appropriate roles for NGOs. This paper considers these issues in the context of two cases of NGO activity, an organization in Zimbabwe called Environment and Development Activities - Zimbabwe (ENDA-Zimbabwe) and an approach to rural development in Kenya, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), which involves international and national NGOs as well as the Kenyan Government. The paper suggests that NGOs can be more effective if they move from a project orientation to an "enabling" orientation. They also must move beyond individual agendas, turf struggles, and long-established roles to identify some emerging approaches to local development and resource management which will increase their capacities for flexible, innovative action. (Econlit)

Stocking, M and S Perkin (1992). “Conservation-with-development: an application of the concept in the Usambara Mountains, Tanzania.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 17: 337-349.

Strachan, P (1996). “ Handing over an operational project to community management in North Darfur, Sudan.” Development in Practice 6( 3): 208-216.

The Kebkabiya Smallholders' Project was established in 1984/85 following famine in Darfur, Sudan, to provide 12 seedbanks for 120 villages; it expanded in 1989 to provide animal health, soil & water conservation, & community development assistance. It was the first Oxfam project to be shifted to a local nongovernmental organization, the Kebkabiya Smallholders Charitable Society. The handover of operation, management, & financial functions - projected to take three years - is analyzed, & it is concluded that a successful, sustainable handover must be treated as a complex set of activities requiring a long time framework. Adapted from the source document. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)

Thomson, JT (1991). Decentralization, governance and problem-solving in the Sahel. Sahel Decentralization Policy Report Volume I, USAID, Washington.

Thomson, JT (1994). Legal recognition of community capacity for self-governance: a key to improving renewable resource management in the Sahel. Sahel Decentralization Policy Report Volume III, USAID, Washington.

Thomson, JT and MM Tall (1991). Non-centralized provision of public services and governance and management of renewable natural resources in contemporary Mali Vol. 1. Final Report for Studies on Decentralization in the Sahel. Burlington, Vermont, Associates in Rural Development.

Twyman, C (1998). “Rethinking community resource management: managing resources or managing people in western Botswana?” Third World Quarterly 19(4): 745-770.

Increasingly complex discussions concerning North-South relations and global environmental strategies are producing debate about the links between poverty and the environment. This paper looks specifically at societal-environmental interactions under the simultaneous impacts of climatic variability and structural land-use changes. The context of these changes is provided by the establishment of Wildlife Management Areas in Botswana in 1986. The paper examines the extent to which the recent implementation of community-based natural resource management projects in the Kalahari Wildlife Management Areas are changing access to, and use and management of, the natural resources of the rural populations living within these areas. These changes have important implications far the dynamics of livelihood strategies and thus the viability of resource-based livelihoods in the Kalahari environment. (SSCI)

USAID (1992). Decentralization and Local Autonomy: Conditions for Achieving Sustainable Natural Resource Management. Washington, USAID.

USAID/Senegal (1993). Community-Based Natural Resources Management Project : Project Paper Volume I and II. Washington, USAID.

Vail, L (1977). “Ecology and history: the example of eastern Zambia.” Journal of Southern African Studies: 129-155.

Veber, H, Ed. (1993). Never Drink from the Same Cup: Proceedings of the Conference on Indigenous Peoples in Africa. Copenhagen, Center for Development Research Doc. 74.

Vengroff, R (1974). “Popular participation and the administration of rural development: the case of Botswana.” Human Organization 33(3): 303-309.

Vivian, J (1994). “NGOS and sustainable development in Zimbabwe: no magic bullets.” Development and Change 25(1): 167-193.

A number of case studies of NGO projects have suggested that NGOs may have an important role to play in addressing environmental problems in developing countries. Drawing on research conducted in Zimbabwe, this analysis seeks to broaden and contextualize the discussion of NGO involvement in sustainable development initiatives. It reviews the theoretical basis for the current emphasis on NGOs, assesses the nvironmental problems in Zimbabwe within their historical and social contexts, and summarizes the findings of recent research on the characteristics of the NGO sector in the country. The purpose is not to evaluate specific NGO environment projects, but rather to assess the mechanisms through which the NGO sector as a whole might make a significant contribution to sustainable development, and the problems in doing so. It is argued that one major obstacle faced by NGOs is the demand made upon them to find simple, neat and comprehensive solutions to complex development problems. The tendency on the part of donors and NGO supporters to expect success stories is called here the 'magic bullet syndrome', and it is argued that this emphasis on simplicity and on success is unrealistic and counterproductive. (SSCI)

Westing, AH (1994). “Population, desertification, and migration.” Environmental Conservation 21(2): 109-114.

It is noted that the number of more or less permanently displaced persons throughout the world (now of the order of 1% of the total human population) continues to increase at a rate of approximately 3 millions per year; the situation in Africa is especially gave, with the number of displaced persons there (now of the order of 3% of the African population), continuing to increase at a rate of approximately 1.5 million per year. Human displacement - which can be seen to originate largely in rural areas - results primarily from one or more of three factors, namely escape from persecution, escape from military activities, or escape from inadequate means of subsistence. A number of examples from Africa are provided of the social and political consequences of human displacement, with emphasis on conflict situations at the sites of relocation. It is further noted that the numbers of displaced persons continue to grow relentlessly despite there being no discernible rise in persecution or military activities, and despite the long-sustained ameliorative efforts and financial assistance by intergovernmental agencies and others.

It is accordingly suggested that the major cause of the continuing increase in the numbers of displaced persons is an ever-growing imbalance between population numbers and the human carrying capacity of the land. Population increases lead to smaller per capita natural resource bases, a predicament exacerbated by over-use - and thus degradation - of the land and its natural resources. In the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, over-use of the land most often takes the form of overgrazing, leading to land degradation that is severe enough to be referred to as desertification. It is concluded that to achieve sustainable utilization of the land and its natural resources will necessitate the integrated attainment of environmental security and societal security - the latter inter alia requiring participatory governance, non-violent means of conflict resolution, and especially population controls. (Source)

Woodhouse, P (1997). “Governance and local environmental management in Africa.” Review of African Political Economy 24(74): 537-547.

World Bank (1989). Strengthening Local Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, World Bank.

World Bank (1996). Toward Environmentally Sustainable Development in sub-Saharan Africa: A World Bank Agenda. Washington DC, The World Bank.