Abstract
Post-apartheid Kwazulu-Natal is in the midst of ecological and social crises related to land ownership, resource control, minerals extraction, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. The environs of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park are a violent environment, where the immediate violence of an anti-poaching 'war' waged over fears of Rhinoceros extinction, is counter-posed to the slow violence permeating the lives of marginal rural residents affected by the externalities of coal mining. A range of struggles are waged against these challenges, but a hegemonic 'Biodiversity Economy' intervention has arisen, attended by projects aimed at territorializing conservation space and multiple-win scenarios. Based on four years of intermittent research in the area, this article critiques the territorialization of conservation, project outcomes, and commercialization efforts within the Umfozi Biodiversity Economy Node (UBEN). I contend that a biodiversity economy nodal approach extends neoliberal conservation strategies, and functions as a spatial aggregator to reterritorialize conservation land use over space and time. However, the findings suggest that, despite years of energy and investment there have only been limited individual successes in the UBEN, and a range of frustrations, compounded by COVID-19 complications. The analysis also highlights further costs and externalities of the initiative: as the UBEN exacerbates underlying tensions in Kwazulu-Natal's uneven conservation geography, and it aligns with problematic and often unrepresentative traditional authority structures and related accumulation networks. It is also complicit with the production of sacrificial spaces at the conservation-extraction nexus.In this context, I argue the UBEN is pyrrhic; that is, an outcome or goal strived for/achieved at too little reward and too high a cost. The article extends political-ecological critique of neoliberal conservation and the green economy to incorporate the framing and implementation of biodiversity economy nodal approaches – and their uneven and pyrrhic effects – in contested, crisis-ridden conservation contexts.
Highlights
Post-apartheid Kwazulu-Natal is in the midst of ecological and social crises related to land ownership, resource control, minerals extraction, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss
Specific mention is made in Umfozi Biodiversity Economy Node (UBEN) documentation of shared risk between parties (SAHGCA, 2015), and commercial risk reduction in the prioritization of viable land for the wildlife economy, while partnerships with community trusts or communal property associations are made in order to "take the risk out of the position" (Interview, Mtonjaneni, November 2018)
The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP) cluster has been more successful with the enclosure of two areas of communal land into the reserve facilitated by traditional authorities under the Imfolozi 'Big 5' project, though the Mandlakzai initiative is defunct after community rejection of the development
Summary
Conservation efforts and initiatives are littered with initiatives that have fallen short of their intended outcomes or failed to stand the test of time (Redford et al, 2013). Specific mention is made in UBEN documentation of shared risk between parties (SAHGCA, 2015), and commercial risk reduction in the prioritization of viable land for the wildlife economy, while partnerships with community trusts or communal property associations are made in order to "take the risk out of the position" (Interview, Mtonjaneni, November 2018) In this sense, the node is as much a crisis response as the neoliberal institutional changes described above. Initiatives such as Babanango, the IB5, and Mpembeni are attractive to investors because of significant potential returns without having to purchase land or infrastructure This facilitates the entry of a new scale of dedicated ecotourism capital investment into ecotourism with better investment, board structures and homogenized management processes, all in a context where land ownership would otherwise be far more uncertain (Interview, Project Rhino Team member, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, November 2017). Rand [approx.. 3.7 million USD] from the claim has not been forthcoming, the co-management structure is not responsive, there are issues with the Trust, and the community benefit arrangements are perceived as inadequate
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
