Resource Tenure and Power Relations in Community Wildlife: The Case of Mkambati Area, South Africa

Abstract

Through a case study of Mkambati area, this article analyzes the prospects for community wildlife management (CWM) for communities that neighbor Mkambati Nature Reserve. Two clusters of issues are proposed as being crucial in any community-based resource management situation. The first cluster is centered on the idea of "resource tenures," and the need to locate wildlife in a fuller resource/livelihood/tenure institutional context. The second cluster is centered on power dynamics, the multilayered struggles between diverse sets of actors, and the process through which resource tenures are continuously renegotiated. It is argued that wildlife management must always be seen in these larger contexts, and that the prospects for successful community-based schemes will depend crucially on how wildlife tenure articulates with other resource tenures, on how it impacts on rural livelihoods considered holistically, and on the relationships that exist between local and nonlocal institutions.