Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Using Analysis of Governance to Unpack Community-Based Conservation: A Case Study from Tanzania

  • Published:
Environmental Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Community-based conservation policies and programs are often hollow with little real devolution. But to pass a judgment of community-based or not community-based on such initiatives and programs obscures what is actually a suite of attributes. In this paper, we analyze governance around a specific case of what is nominally community-based conservation—Ikona Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Tanzania—using two complementary sets of criteria. The first relates to governance “powers”: planning powers, regulatory powers, spending powers, revenue-generating powers, and the power to enter into agreements. The second set of criteria derive from the understanding of governance as a set of social functions: social coordination, shaping power, setting direction, and building community. The analysis helps to detail ways in which the Tanzanian state through policy and regulations has constrained the potential for Ikona WMA to empower communities and community actors. Although it has some features of community-based conservation, community input into how the governance social functions would be carried out in the WMA was constrained from the start and is now largely out of community hands. The two governance powers that have any significant community-based flavor—spending powers and revenue-generating powers—relate to the WMA’s tourism activities, but even here the picture is equivocal at best. The unpacking of governance that we have done, however, reveals that community empowerment through the processes associated with creating and recognizing indigenous and community-conserved areas is something that can be pursued through multiple channels, some of which might be more strategic than others.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agrawal A (1997) Community in conservation: beyond enchantment and disenchantment. Conservation & Development Forum, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal A, Gibson CC (1999) Enchantment and disenchantment: the role of community in natural resource conservation. World Dev 27:629–649

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baird IG, Dearden P (2003) Biodiversity conservation and resource tenure regimes: a case study from northeast Cambodia. Environ Manag 32:541–550

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baldus RD (2009) A practical summary of experiences after three decades of community-based wildlife conservation in Africa: “what are the lessons learnt?”. Food and Agriculture Organization/CIC, Budapest

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldus RD, Cauldwell AE (2004) Tourist hunting and its role in development of wildlife management areas in Tanzania. CIC—International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation, Dar es Salaam

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett CB, Brandon K, Gibson C, Gjertsen H (2001) Conserving tropical biodiversity amid weak institutions. Bioscience 51:497–502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benjaminsen TA, Goldman MJ, Minwary MY, Maganga FP (2013) Wildlife management in Tanzania: state control, rent seeking and community resistance. Dev Change 44(5):1087–1109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F (2004) Rethinking community-based conservation. Conserv Biol 18(3):621–630

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F (2007) Community-based conservation in a globalized world. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104(39):15188–15193

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Biermann F (2008) Earth system governance: a research agenda. In: Young OR, King LA, Schroeder H (eds) Institutions and environmental change: principal findings, applications, and research frontiers. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp 277–301

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks JS, Waylen KA, Mulder MB (2012) How national context, project design, and local community characteristics influence success in community-based conservation projects. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(52):21265–21270

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brosius JP, Tsing AL, Zerner C (1998) Representing communities: histories and politics of community-based natural resource management. Soc Nat Resour 11:157–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown K (2002) Innovations for conservation and development. Geogr J 168:6–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaffin BC, Gosnell H, Cosens BA (2014) A decade of adaptive governance scholarship: synthesis and future directions. Ecol Soc 19(3):56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Child B, Barnes G (2010) The conceptual evolution and practice of community-based natural resource management in southern Africa: past, present and future. Environ Conserv 37(3):283–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson WB, Cotter PR (1991) The relationship between sense of community and subjective well-being: a first look. J Commun Psychol 19(3):246–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dressler W, Büscher B, Schoon ML, Brockington D, Hayes T, Kull C, McCarty J, Strestha K (2010) From hope to crisis and back again? A critical history of the global CBNRM narrative. Environ Conserv 37(1):5–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dudley N (2008) Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Emerson K, Nabatchi T, Balogh S (2011) An integrative framework for collaborative governance. J Public Adm Res Theor 22(1):1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham J, Amos B, Plumptre T (2003) Governance principles for protected areas in the 21st century. Report prepared for the Vth world parks congress, Durban, South Africa Institute on Governance, Ottawa. http://iog.ca/publications/pa_governance2.pdf. Accessed 15 Oct 2009

  • Helliwell JF, Putnam RD (2004) The social context of well-being. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 359(1449):1435–1446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Igoe J, Croucher B (2007) Conservation, commerce, and communities: the story of community-based wildlife management areas in Tanzania’s northern tourist circuit. Conserv Soc 5(4):534–561

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikona Wildlife Management Area (2012) The Ikona Wildlife Management Area annual income and expenditure report for conservation and development activities for the year 2011. Ikona WMA, Mugumu, Tanzania

    Google Scholar 

  • Imperial MT (2005) Using collaboration as a governance strategy lessons from six watershed management programs. Adm Soc 37(3):281–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Resource Assessment (2007) Assessment and evaluation of the wildlife resource management areas in Tanzania. University of Dar es Salaam/Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism-Wildlife Division, Dar es Salaam

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer RA, van Shaik CP, Johnson J (1997) Last stand: protected areas and the defense of tropical biodiversity. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood M (2010) Good governance for terrestrial protected areas: a framework, principles and performance outcomes. J Environ Manag 91(3):754–766

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Makupa E (2013) Conservation efforts and local livelihoods in western Serengeti, Tanzania: experience from Ikona community Wildlife Management Area. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Victoria, Victoria

  • Margerum RD (2008) A typology of collaboration efforts in environmental management. Environ Manag 41(4):487–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2003) Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment/Island Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (1998) The wildlife policy of Tanzania

  • Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (2012) The wildlife (Wildlife Management Area) Regulations, 2012

  • Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism - Wildlife Division (2003) Reference manual for implementing guidelines for the designation and management of wildlife management areas (WMAs) in Tanzania. Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dar es Salaam

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism—Wildlife Division (2005) Ikona WMA resource management Zone Plan 2005–2009

  • Murphree MW (2002) Protected areas and the commons. Common Property Digest 60:1–3

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson F (2007) Emergent or illusory? Community wildlife management in Tanzania. Institute for Environment and Development, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson F (2010) Community rights, conservation and contested land: the politics of natural resource governance in Africa. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Newmark WD, Hough JL (2000) Conserving wildlife in Africa: integrated conservation and development projects and beyond. Bioscience 50(7):585–592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oates JF (1999) Myth and reality in the rain forest: how conservation strategies are failing in West Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsson P (2007) The role of vision in framing adaptive co-management processes: lessons from Kristianstads Vattenrike, Southern Sweden. In: Armitage D, Berkes F, Doubleday N (eds) adaptive co-management: collaboration, learning and multi-level governance. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, pp 268–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips A (2003) Turning ideas on their head. George Wright Forum 20:8–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Plummer R, Armitage DR, de Loë RC (2013) Adaptive comanagement and its relationship to environmental governance. Ecol Soc 18(1):21

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter-Bolland L, Ellis EA, Guariguata MR, Ruiz-Mallén I, Negrete-Yankelevich S, Reyes-García V (2012) Community managed forests and forest protected areas: an assessment of their conservation effectiveness across the tropics. For Ecol Manage 268:6–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson LW, King LA (2011) Values, well-being and governance: from the local to the global. Paper presented at the 2011 Colorado conference on earth systems governance, 17–20 May 2011, Fort Collins, Colorado

  • Robinson LW, Bennett N, King LA, Murray G (2012) “We want our children to grow up to see these animals:” values and protected areas governance in Canada, Ghana and Tanzania. Hum Ecol 40:571–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shauri V (1999) The new wildlife policy in Tanzania: old wine in a new bottle? lawyers’ environmental action team policy brief no. 3. Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team, Dar es Salaam

  • Terborgh J (1999) Requiem for nature. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Waltner-Toews D, Kay JJ (2005) The evolution of an ecosystem approach: the diamond schematic and an Adaptive Methodology for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health. Ecol Soc 10(1):38

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams D (2001) Macro-policy and cumulative effects: elements necessary to move from government to governance. Paper presented at the 14th annual PAT-net conference, changing discourses: democracy, institutions and civil space, 21–23 June 2001, Leiden, The Netherlands

  • World Resources Institute, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank (2003) World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth: Balance, Voice, and Power. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Young OR (1996) The effectiveness of international governance systems. In: Young OR, Demko GJ, Ramakrishna K (eds) Global environmental change and international governance. University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, pp 1–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Young OR, King LA, Schroeder H (2008) Institutions and environmental change: principal findings, applications and research frontiers. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the International Development Research Centre. We would also like to thank the community members and other respondents who participated in this research, especially the people of Nyichoka.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Livestock Research Institute, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya

    Lance W. Robinson

  2. Geography Department, University of Dodoma, P. O. Box 395, Dodoma, Tanzania

    Enock Makupa

Authors
  1. Lance W. Robinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Enock Makupa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lance W. Robinson.

Additional information

Lance W. Robinson: Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth St., Nanaimo, BC, Canada (at the time of the research).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Robinson, L.W., Makupa, E. Using Analysis of Governance to Unpack Community-Based Conservation: A Case Study from Tanzania. Environmental Management 56, 1214–1227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0573-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0573-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation