No Easy Answer—A Reply to Hutton, Adams and Murombedzi

Abstract

After 20 years of trial, error and promise, community-based conservation efforts are struggling. Despite numerous attempts world-wide, community-based conservation rarely succeeds in improving livelihood conditions or biodiversity conservation. In hindsight it is evident that many projects have taken a naïve view of what it takes in terms of nstitutional and technical capacity, time, resources, political negotiation, clearing up of tenure conflicts, and development of coherent management goals. Hutton, Adams and Murombedzi outline the dominant conservation discourses and fear the effects of a possible new fortress conservation era. Since community-based conservation has largely failed to fulfil its promise, perhaps we have not adequately addressed the key issues of whose interests are being served, what is the purpose of conservation, and what costs we are willing to accept. The history of conservation is one of conflict and negotiation and will remain so as long as conservation largely is initiated by external actors and wanted by few locally. It is unilkely that future community-based approaches will have much success unless they commit themselves to reaching certain social and ecological goals.