The Spaces of Conservation and Development around Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya

Abstract

Geographically or sociologically defined resource management units, such as buffer zones or community resource management territories, seek to harmonize local land-use practices with protected-area management objectives. The geographically restricted nature of these models often results in simplistic representations of society-nature relations over time and space. Conservation areas are misrepresented as ecologically and socially homogeneous, as well as politically neutral. This study examines the limits of a spatially defined conservation and development project designed around the physical geographical unit of the watershed at Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya. It argues that politically motivated violence that has plagued the area since the early 1990s has severely undermined the suitability of such narrowly defined conservation territories. Specifically, the case study points to the permeability of the Lake Nakuru watershed to national and regional political forces that ultimately constrain participation in conservation activities. The spaces of conservation and development must be enlarged to include these extralocal arenas and processes if environmental problems are to be effectively addressed.

Residents’ perceptions of Royal Bardia National Park, Nepal

“…More recently, residents' perceptions of conservation and development projects associated with protected areas (Bauer, 2003;Ite, 1996;Jim and Xu, 2002;Mehta and Kellert, 1998;Mkanda and Munthali, 1994;Sekhar, 2003;Straede and Helles, 2000;Wainwright and Wehrmeyer, 1998;Walpole and Goodwin, 2001) and the effect of projects on attitudes toward protected areas (Boonzaier, 1996;Gillingham and Lee, 1999;Infield and Namara, 2001;Sekhar, 2003;Songorwa, 1999) have been considered. Some research has also considered the social context of residents living adjacent to protected areas (Abel and Blaikie, 1986;Brown, 1997;Daniels and Bassett, 2002;Fortin and Gagnon, 1999;Maikhuri et al, 2000;Slater, 2002).…”

Opportunities for transnational indigenous eco-politics: the changing landscape in the new millennium

“…10. The counterargument that biodiversity conservation defined as a 'science' helps mask the often violent and unjust political processes that underlie it has pitted conservation biologists against those espousing a more integrated conservation-development approach and has been subjected to detailed analysis in the field of political ecology (Daniels and Bassett 2002;Escobar 1998;Neumann 1998). 11.…”

Community Perceptions and Priorities for Managing Water and Environmental Resources in the River Njoro Watershed in Kenya

“…These communities utilize watershed resources in different ways, and consequently have different outlooks on the health and use of the river and surrounding landscape. Smallholders in the uppermost community of Nessuit, for instance, are primarily subsistence farmers who arrived during a wave of politically motivated settlement in the 1990's (Daniels & Bassett 2002). Njoro Town, in the middle of the watershed, is a relatively large, growing community that houses Egerton University and has several larger farms.…”