Abstract
Conservation efforts must develop strategies to perform at violent frontiers where environmental values, mineral extraction and conflict intersect. Using war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Itombwe Nature Reserve as an illustrative example, this article explores how community conservation is implemented and received at a violent frontier. Taking inspiration from an emerging body of literature which portrays conservation as a form of ‘social contract’ in regions where the nation state is weak or absent, it explores some of the expectations and obligations that surround community conservation initiatives. It draws the conclusion that conservation social contracts are likely to produce unintended consequences when left unfulfilled or broken. Conservation actors perceived to be breaking the terms of (implicit) social contracts can inadvertently encourage local communities to embrace alternative contracts with other actors seeking to extract value from the resources located in frontiers, such as industrial mining companies.
Highlights
In protected areas positioned at violent frontiers where conservation, extraction and contestation overlap, the standard challenges to conser vation are compounded by the inability of governments to exert terri torial control
We build on these analyses by demonstrating how the failure to deliver on the social contract established through community conservation can lead people to abandon previous contracts and seek opportunities with new contractual partners
Different organisations were allocated different responsibilities: World Wildlife Fund (WWF), World Conservation Society (WCS) and Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) provided financial capital and technical expertise, AfriCapacity the essential link to communities, and ICCN the sovereign power to establish of a protected area in Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)
Summary
In protected areas positioned at violent frontiers where conservation, extraction and contestation overlap, the standard challenges to conser vation are compounded by the inability of governments to exert terri torial control. Community conservation encour ages people to become the co-owners of resources and values generated through protected area designation This is achieved through the devolution of regulatory responsibility away from the state toward local populations (Agrawal, 2005). Itombwe Nature Reserve (INR) is the only protected area in eastern Congo to be established according the community conservation paradigm in a conflict-afflicted region where militarised conservation dominates. International NGOs cooperated with the government to establish the reserve through two governmental technologies: participatory mapping and zoning exer cises; and the partial devolution of regulatory responsibility to com munities themselves. We discuss the implications of our theoretical approach and empirical findings for the broader literature on community conservation in the context of violent conflict
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