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The Rise and Fall of a Second-Generation CBNRM Project in Zambia: Insights from a Project Perspective

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Abstract

Since the advent of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in the mid-1980s, scholars and practitioners have sought to explain the uneven performance of CBNRM programs. Most CBNRM assessments examine the underlying principles of community-based conservation, the local social and ecological contexts, and connections with larger political and historical patterns. In this article, I argue that analysis of the potential and pitfalls of CBNRM also requires an understanding of the institutional history and internal dynamics of projects that implement CBNRM reforms. Drawing upon theory and methods from development ethnography and public policy, I examine the rise and fall of CONASA, a second-generation CBNRM project in Zambia that operated from 2001 to 2004. CONASA was constituted from a merger of organizations and discourses to provide continuity with previous projects. Its ambitious suite of activities included support for household livelihoods, community-based resource management, policy analysis, advocacy, and conservation enterprises at local, national, and transboundary levels. While individual activities were largely successful, CONASA’s hybrid origins and logframe-centric management created fissures between its holistic design and operational logics, and hindered its ability to develop a broader narrative and maintain key alliances. This case study illustrates the importance of understanding the interplay between project design and operational context to fully appreciate the possibilities and limitations of project-mode conservation.

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Notes

  1. CONASA (Community Based Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Agriculture) was initially known as INSAKA (Improving Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Agriculture in the Kafue Area).

  2. Including WWF (ADMADE in Zambia, CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe, LIFE in Namibia), Wildlife Conservation Society (ADMADE in Zambia), Chemonics (Natural Resource Management Project in Botswana), and DAI (COMPASS in Malawi).

  3. The time frame was later reduced to 4 years and the budget reduced by $2 million when the Bush administration took office.

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Louise Fortmann, Kurt Spreyer, Teddy Hodges, two former CONASA staff members and four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on drafts of this manuscript. This work would not have been possible without the financial support of the Andrew and Mary Thompson Rocca Scholarship from the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. I am eternally grateful to numerous colleagues in WCS and CARE Zambia for sharing their time, talents, and commitments to conservation and human welfare.

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  1. Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley, 137 Mulford Hall #3114, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3114, USA

    Andrew Lyons

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Lyons, A. The Rise and Fall of a Second-Generation CBNRM Project in Zambia: Insights from a Project Perspective. Environmental Management 51, 365–378 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9996-1

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