Local institutions, actors, and natural resource governance in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and surrounds, South Africa

Local people and conservation officials’ perceptions on relationships and conflicts in South African protected areas

“…It is reasonable to suggest that this could explain their negative perceptions towards and the reported conflicts with reserve officials, in support of findings elsewhere (e.g. Bruyere et al 2009;Thondhlana et al 2015Thondhlana et al , 2016.…”

“…These findings corroborate previous findings that highlight resistance to conservation in cases where PAs impact local people's livelihoods. For example, evidence suggests that restricted access to resources for economic and cultural purposes yielded conflicts at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Thondhlana et al 2011(Thondhlana et al , 2015 and Silaka Nature Reserve in South Africa (Thondhlana et al 2016). Similar sources of conflicts have been reported at Mikumi National Park in Tanzania (Vedeld et al 2012) and various parks in Zimbabwe (Mutanga et al 2016).…”

“…It is important to note that conservation agencies have conservation interests as their primary motive, and in most collaborative arrangements, they initiate and facilitate the process of involving local communities (Cundill et al 2013;Thondhlana et al 2015). This means that conservation agencies are likely to assume a stronger position than that of local communities and assert and protect their interests at all stages of negotiations for collaborative management of PAs which can result in conflicts (White et al 2009;Chuenpagdee et al 2013;Thondhlana et al 2016) -a scenario parallel to 'fortress' conservation approaches.…”

“…Particularly in South Africa, though the importance of community participation is embraced in the management of previously restrictive PAs, there is little progress in practice (e.g. Cundill et al 2013;Thondhlana et al 2015Thondhlana et al , 2016. Instead agendas are pre-defined and set by conservation agencies who then try to get local community by-in, which subsequently yields conflictual relationships between local communities and conservation officials (Cundill et al 2013).…”

African societies, nation-states, governance, human migration, xenophobia and cultural contestations: Editorial framing

“…Societies have ordered themselves through fragmentary geopolitical entities bounded by socio-political boundaries that define de jure sovereignty governed by states (Pereira & Ruysenaar, 2012;Kark, Tulloch, Gordon, Mazor, Bunnefeld & Levin, 2015;Thondhlana, Shackleton & Blignaut, 2015). The African society too has been ordered through similar reterritorialisation of sovereignty along cultural and ethnic divides, creating "bordering, ordering and othering" landscapes (Iossifova, 2013;Lunstrum, 2013;Dallimer & Strange, 2015;Kark et al, 2015).…”