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Can nationally prescribed institutional arrangements enable community-based conservation? An analysis of conservancies and community corests in the Zambezi region of Namibia

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Mbizo_et_al_2021.pdf (408.6Kb)
Date
25/09/2021
Author
Mbizo, Meed
Newing, Helen
Thorn, Jessica
Keywords
Common pool resource governance
Wildlife policy
Design principles
Namibia
Forestry policy
Institutions
G Geography (General)
E-DAS
SDG 15 - Life on Land
SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
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Abstract
Community-based conservation is advocated as an idea that long-term conservation success requires engaging with, providing benefits for, and establishing institutions representing local communities. However, community-based conservation’s efficacy and impact in sustainable resource management varies depending on national natural resource policies and implications for local institutional arrangements. This paper analyses the significance of natural resource management policies and institutional design on the management of common pool resources (CPRs), by comparing Namibian conservancies and community forests. To meet this aim, we reviewed key national policies pertinent to natural resource governance and conducted 28 semi-structured interviews between 2012 and 2013. Key informants included conservancy and community forest staff and committee members, village headmen, NGO coordinators, regional foresters, wildlife officials (wardens), and senior government officials in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. We explored the following questions: how do national natural resource management policies affect the operations of local common pool resource institutions? and how do external factors affect local institutions and community participation in CPRs decision-making? Our results show that a diversity of national policies significantly influenced local institutional arrangements. Formation of conservancies and community forests by communities is not only directly linked with state policies designed to increase wildlife numbers and promote forest growth or improve condition, but also formulated primarily for benefits from and control over natural resources. The often-assumed direct relationship between national policies and local institutional arrangements does not always hold in practice, resulting in institutional mismatch. We aim to advance theoretical and applied discourse on common pool resource governance in social-ecological systems, with implications for sustainable land management policies in Namibia and other landscapes across sub-Saharan Africa.
Citation
Mbizo , M , Newing , H & Thorn , J 2021 , ' Can nationally prescribed institutional arrangements enable community-based conservation? An analysis of conservancies and community corests in the Zambezi region of Namibia ' , Sustainability , vol. 13 , no. 19 , 10663 . https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910663
Publication
Sustainability
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910663
ISSN
2071-1050
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
This research was funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom, NACS-2011-288; and the National Council of Higher Education in Namibia (NCHE).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24795

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