Abstract
Using case material collected in three conservancies in Northern Namibia, this chapter explores how the global discourse of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is translated into action through state interventions and how these initiatives are enacted in Namibia. Our research, which focused on the conservancy level, shows how the various subtle, often indirect, mechanisms make and break conservancy communities, creating fluid, overlapping and constantly changing boundaries between communal institutions. We therefore problematised what constitute communities as a way to unpack the working of the technologies of rule in conservancies and the making of subjects. Conservancies were riddled by attempts to include and exclude certain groups. One of the outstanding community dynamics in relation to the institutionalisation of conservancies is that these form the basis of new power relations in the communal areas that compete with the existing traditional hierarchies of power. This shift has, however, not been able to guarantee a fair distribution of benefits. The conservancy committees often served as a vehicle for the emergence of new local elites closely associated with the modern global commodity economy. Increased reliance on external methods in wildlife conflict mitigation and the subcontracting of key tasks, such as hunting and tourism development, challenge assumptions about local capacity development. Also, conservancies were streamlined by regulations that are designed, fine-tuned and monitored by the state and by experts. This research confirms statements on how CBNRM discourse is clouded by various romanticised statements, which leads to a range of paradoxes and ambiguities in its approach, generating processes of social change with problematic outcomes at the local, community level. While decentralisation is the discourse, recentralisation seems to be the practice. This discursive shift requires a detailed analysis of the state and the role of local and international elites in the commoditisation of environmental resources.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Agrawal, A. (2003). Sustainable governance of common-pool resources: context, methods and politics.’ Annual Review of Anthropology 32: 243–262.
Agrawal, A. (2005). Environmentality. Technologies of government and the making of subjects. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.
Agrawal, A. and Gibson, C. (2001). The role of community in natural resource conservation. In: Agrawal, A. and Gibson, C. (eds.) Communities and environment. Ethnicity, gender, and the state in community-based conservation. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, pp. 1–32.
Alexander, J. and McGregor, J. (2000). Wildlife and politics: CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe. Development and Change 31: 605–627.
Arce, A. and Long, N. (2000). Anthropology, development and modernities: exploring discourses, counter-tendencies and violence. Routledge, London, UK.
Balint, P.J. and Mashinya, J. (2008). CAMPFIRE through the lens of the ‘commons’ literature: Nyaminyami Rural District in post-2000 Zimbabwe. Journal of Southern African Studies 34: 127–143.
Bologna, S. (2008). Stakeholders and stickholders: power and paradigms in a South-African development context. Anthropology Southern Africa 31(3/4): 123–130.
Cirelli, M.T. (2002). Legal trends in wildlife management. FAO Legislative Study 74, pp 1–69.
De Vette, M. (2009). Emergent properties in community-based natural resource management: The case of conservancy formation in Caprivi, Namibia. Masters thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Dobler, G. (2009). Oshikango: The dynamics of growth and regulation in a Namibian boom town. Journal of Southern African Studies 35: 115–131.
Fabricius, C. and Koch, E. (eds.) (2004). Rights, resources & rural development: community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa. Earthscan, London, UK.
Grobler, J. (2008). Namibia’s quick-buck mentality. Mail & Guardian online, 10 August 2008. Available at: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-10-namibias-quickbuck-mentality
Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) (2008). A quick guide to the ‘Human-Animals Conservancy Self Insurance Scheme’ (HACSIS) for Kwandu, Mayuni, Mashi and Wuparo. IRDNC guide, Windhowk, Namibia.
Kayembe, G. and Monela, G. (2000). Empowering communities to manage natural resources: Where does the new power lie? A case study of Duru-Haitemba, Babati. Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Sokoine Unversity of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania. Available at: http://www.tzonline.org/pdf/empoweringcommunities.pdf
Kashululu, R.M. (2009). Conservancy as an arena of power struggle: a case study of Uukwaluudhi Conservancy in Namibia. Masters thesis, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
Kreike, E. (2009). De-globalisation and deforestation in colonial Africa: closed markets, the cattle complex, and environmental change in North-Central Namibia, 1890–1990. Journal of Southern African Studies 35: 81–98.
Leach, M., Mearns, R. and Scoones, I. (1999). Environmental entitlements: dynamics and institutions in community-based natural resource management. World Development 27: 225.
Li, T.M. (2002). Engaging simplifications: community-based resource management, market processes and state agendas in upland Southeast Asia. World Development 30(2): 265–283.
Li, T.M. (2007). The will to improve: Governmentality, development, and the practice of politics. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, USA.
Jones, B.T.B. (1999). Policy lessons from the evolution of a community-based approach to wildlife management, Kunene Region, Namibia. Journal of International Development 11: 295–304.
Martin, R.B. (2002). Conditions for effective, stable and equitable conservation at the national level in southern Africa. Paper prepared for theme 4 workshop ‘Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas’, 24–26 2002 Durban, South Africa. Available at: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/cca_rmartin.pdf
Moore, D. (2005). Suffering for territory: race, place, and power in Zimbabwe. Duke University Press, Durham, NC, USA.
Murphree, M. (1994). The role of institution in community-based conservation. In: Western, D., Wright, R.M. and Strum, S.C. (eds.) Natural connections, perspectives in community-based conservations. Iland Press, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 403–427.
Nelson, F. and Agrawal, A. (2008). Patronage or participation: CBNRM reform in sub-Saharan Africa. Development and Change 39(4): 557–585.
Nott, C. and Jacobsohn, M. (2004) Key issues in Namibia’s communal conservancy movement. In: Fabricius, C. and Koch, E. (eds.) Rights, resources & rural development: community-based natural resource management in Southern Africa. Earthscan, London, UK, pp. 194–200.
Nuijten, M. (2005). Power in practice: a force field approach to natural resource management. Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies 4: 1–15.
Ostrom, E. (2005). Understanding institutional diversity. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Platteau, J.P. (2004). Monitoring elite capturing in community-driven development. Development and Change 35: 223–246.
Poteete, A. and Ostrom, E. (2004). Heterogeneity, group size and collective action: the role of institutions in forest management. Development and Change 35: 435–461.
Schiffer, E. (2004). How does community-based natural resources management in Namibia change the distribution of power and influence? Preliminary findings. DEA Research Discussion Paper nr. 67, 35 pp.
Scott, J.C. (1998). Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, USA.
Skyer, P. and Saruchera, M. (2004). Community conservancies in Namibia. An effective institutional model for commons management? PLAAS Policy Brief 14, 4 pp.
Sporton, D. and Mosimane, A. (2006). Population ageing and sustainable livelihoods in regions affected by HIV/AIDS. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. Available at: htpp://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/06/20/28/BN1.pdf
Wiersum, F. (1997). Indigenous exploitation and management of tropical forest resources: An evolutionary continuum in forest-people interactions. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 63: 1–16.
Wiersum, F. (2009). Community forestry between local autonomy and global encapsulation: Quo vadis with environmental and climate change payments? First Community Forestry International Workshop: ‘Thinking Globally – Acting Locally: Community Forestry in the International Arena’, 15–18 September 2009, Pokhara, Nepal.
Zeller, W. (2009). Danger and opportunity in Katima Mulilo: a Namibian border boomtown at transnational crossroads. Journal of Southern African Studies 35: 133–154.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Wageningen Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
de Vette, M., Kashululu, RM., Hebinck, P. (2012). Conservancies in Namibia: a discourse in action. In: Arts, B., van Bommel, S., Ros-Tonen, M., Verschoor, G. (eds) Forest-people interfaces. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-749-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-749-3_7
Publisher Name: Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen
Online ISBN: 978-90-8686-749-3
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
