Park, people and potatoes: the complicated culture of conservation

Abstract

ABSTRACTVirungas National Park, Rwanda, is a pristine wild environment abutting some of the most fertile agricultural land in Africa. Climate and altitude provide ideal conditions for many valuable crops there. In this paper, Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) is highlighted in an excerpt from a fieldwork diary. Various elements that contribute to a wider understanding of challenges faced by various groups, including wildlife are explored through the perspective of global economic and political forces. The paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach from a perspective firmly grounded in conservation biology. It addresses a need for dialogue across fields and disciplines in order to contribute to more robust and effective strategies for both rain forest conservation and the well-being of precarious agricultural, hunter-gatherer and wildlife communities. Human agency in the face of monolithic business models, of ‘primitive’ versus ‘modern’ binaries, and the sustainability of conservation models that exclude such perspectives are outlined and explored.