Abstract
This article is concerned with the implementation of community-based conservancies (CBC) in conflict-ridden pastoralist areas of northern Kenya and whether the creation of protected areas can facilitate the resolution of conflict. Evidence from ethnographic research in East Pokot, Kenya, reveals a mixed picture. In the last decade, three CBCs were established along the administrative borders. Two of them are located in contested areas between the Pokot and neighboring pastoralists. In order to ensure their long-term success in terms of wildlife conservation and economic viability they must act as catalysts for inter-ethnic conflict resolution. In one case, the implementation proved successful, while in the other it exacerbated tensions and led to ethnic violence. In addition, issues of conservation are also embedded in deeper intra-societal struggles over the reconfiguration and renegotiation of access to and control over land. Drawing on ethnographic data and recent literature this research sheds light on unexpected consequences of CBC.
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Notes
In Southern Africa CBC is better known as community based natural resource management (CBNRM).
Experience from Transboundary Natural Resource Management (TBNRM) could provide an interesting point of reference, particularly because this is where the idea of Peace Parks originates (Ali 2007). The scale of management, implementation and potential conflict, however, is up-scaled to a transnational dimension (Duffy 2006) and as such is beyond the scope of this contribution. However, I would add that despite the rhetoric on resource sharing, territorial and boundary issues often seem to remain highly contentious (Duffy 2006; Wittmayer and Büscher 2010; Wolmer 2003)
I do not include West Pokot in my considerations here; for information regarding West Pokot see, for example, Porter (1965) and Conant (1965).
It is difficult to assess the number of casualties. According to the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Maralal, the number of victims was estimated to exceed 500 (Evans Onyego, pers. comm. Maralal, August 29, 2011). This figure appears somewhat high given that the incident reports of the administration police for Baringo, Samburu and Laikipia listed a total of 62 casualties: 21 in 2008 and 41 in 2009. However, informal conversations with warriors, victims and members of the local administration indicated much higher numbers than the police reports, particularly in 2009. I do not have figures of casualties for 2006 and 2007. I thank Peace Cops Kenya for providing the data.
Further detail is beyond the scope of this article, but it is important to note that the IIBRC was implemented in 2009 to review and redefine constitutional boundaries in order to implement the new constitution.
I wish to emphasize here that I do not intend to imply any judgment as to the validity of the claims of either the Pokot or the Samburu to the area.
Interview with two young men (anonymous), Chepelow, August 21, 2011.
This and the following quotes and information are from http://www.nrt-kenya.org/home.html, last accessed November 21, 2011.
Interview with Tom Lalampaa, NRT Community Development Manager. Isiolo. September 2, 2011.
These and the following quotes are taken from an interview with Tom Lalampaa, NRT (see above).
Ruko is a contraction of Rukus and Komolion, the IlChamus and Pokot villages that border the conservation area.
Interview with Lokoulem. Chepkalacha. July 26, 2011. Shamba is the Swahili term for farm; Tiati and Silale are (grazing) areas in East Pokot.
At this point, the conservancy board members began to discriminate the two group ranches into a Samburu and a Dorobo group ranch. This episode, however, is beyond the scope of this article.
Speech given on a fundraising event in Churo, April 30, 2011.
About 4 Euro in 2002.
Quotes are taken from http://www.nrt-kenya.org/conservancies.html, last accessed November 21, 2011.
Unlike the Namibian examples given above, these struggles are not framed in terms of indigenous identity politics. They rather follow the logic of political tribalism (Berman and Lonsdale 1992). This, however, is not to claim that global indigenism does not have its repercussions in Eastern Africa (Igoe 2006).
Interview with Tom Lalampaa, Community Development Manager, NRT (see above).
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Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Michael Bollig and the participants of the Forschungswerkstatt at Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, for helpful comments on a draft version of this article. My thanks also go to Daniel Bates and two anonymous reviewers, whose comments greatly helped to improve this article.
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Greiner, C. Unexpected Consequences: Wildlife Conservation and Territorial Conflict in Northern Kenya. Hum Ecol 40, 415–425 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9491-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9491-6