Park Gazettement and Integrated Conservation and Development as Factors in Community Conflict at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

Abstract

Conflicts between protected-area managers and local people are common, but the drivers of conflict are rarely analyzed. This limits opportunities to identify strategies that reduce conflict and the magnitude of resulting threats to conservation. Integrated conservation and development (ICD) was adopted at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, to reduce conflict during gazettement of the national park, but the success of this approach remains contested. We retrieved documents of conflict written by park staff and local people from 1986 through 2000 (before, during, and after gazettement). We extracted data on 48 incidences of violent conflict and categorized them by gazettement period, area, instigator, and type to undertake a historical analysis of the triggers of violent conflict at Bwindi. Before and during gazettement, local villagers instigated most of the conflict incidents when law-enforcement efforts sought to halt commercial activities within Bwindi. No conflict arose from the arrest of villagers collecting subsistence resources during these periods. After gazettement, prohibitions on commercial activities continued to drive conflict even though villagers collecting subsistence resources were arrested more frequently than before gazettement, and local attitudes toward the park had improved following receipt of ICD benefits. Law-enforcement efforts targeted commercial activities to reduce this threat to Bwindi's mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), although the activities remained important income sources for people in villages near Bwindi. Losing commercial income following gazettement therefore appeared to be their primary motivation for instigating conflict with park rangers. Prohibitions on subsistence resource use triggered conflict less often. Our use of typologies for a multivariate conflict analysis demonstrates that by identifying differences between effects of conservation as drivers of conflict, conflict analysis can enable a more strategic deployment of conflict-resolution measures that could further conservation efforts. At Bwindi targeting ICD toward individuals who lost benefits from commercial activities may strengthen the role of ICD in conflict resolution and conservation.

Understanding the link between benefits from protected areas and their relationship with surrounding communities: An exploration in Costa Rica

“…This concurs with the results found by Allendorf et al (2012), Baker et al (2012), and Pearson and Muchunguzi (2011). As presented in Figure 2, it seems that environmental benefits are a necessary condition in the community-protected area relationship due to their reliance on natural resources for their living or employment.…”

Conservation and Development

“…It has a very rich flora and fauna and is the home of almost half of the Mountain gorilla population in the world (Namara 2006, McNeilage et al 2006. BINP has been managed as a protected area since 1932 (Blomley et al 2010 income from selling surplus crops (Baker et al 2012). Some of the people who live here are among the poorest people in Uganda, which has increased their dependency on natural resources (Baker et al 2012, Korbee 2007, Blomley et al 2010.…”

Exploring Local Perspectives for Conservation Planning: A Case Study from a Remote Forest Community in Indonesian Papua

“…Although their expansion over recent years was dramatic, there are limits to what can be achieved by this approach alone. Even well-funded protected areas remain vulnerable to external threats [9][10][11]. In addition, there are mounting ethical and practical concerns whenever people are displaced by conservation [12] and numerous accounts of local stakeholders' hostility to conservation authorities as a result of exclusion have been noted [5,13].…”