From Rhetoric to Practice: How High-Profile Politics Impeded Community Consultation in Madagascar's New Protected Areas

Abstract

When Madagascar's former president announced at the 5th World Parks Congress his intention to triple the country's protected areas, he underscored that the new parks would engage local communities. Donors and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have since touted the program's commitment to community involvement. However, research in Madagascar's eastern rainforest revealed how a series of political decisions at multiple scales impeded village consultation. While the high-profile announcement successfully mobilized biodiversity conservation funds, it also drew attention toward meeting the demands of capital city-based politicians, foreign donors, and international NGOs and away from effectively engaging rural communities, thereby reinforcing nonlocal decision-making power. By revealing how conservation projects are embedded in and productive of politics in and among sponsoring organizations, the article responds to calls for greater analysis of the political, economic, and social contexts of conservation projects and specifically the politics among the donors, governents, and NGOs behind international conservation and development.