Glocalisation and Nature Conservation Strategies in 21st‐Century Southern Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper refers to the establishment of the Great Limpopo on the South Africa‐Mozambique‐Zimbabwe border and the Kgalagadi on the South Africa‐Botswana border to illuminate the involvement of actors under conditions that cannot more appropriately be captured by analyses that place emphasis on particular scales. It reaffirms the view that the global‐local infusion involves actors at multiple levels. To that end, the paper uses the debate about global‐local connections as an interpretative framework for understanding various actors involved in the creation of transfrontier parks in southern Africa. Drawing from case study material in the Great Limpopo and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Parks, the paper shows that changing conservation philosophies, the socio‐political environment, economic imperatives and conditions in and around national parks combined to make the region favourable to the new nature conservation schemes.