The political ecology of participatory conservation: institutions and discourse

R. Bixler,Stanislav Shmelev

doi:10.2458/v22i1.21083

R. Bixler, Stanislav Shmelev

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2458/v22i1.21083

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Abstract

Increasingly, natural resource conservation programs refer to participation and local community involvement as one of the necessary prerequisites for sustainable resource management. In frameworks of adaptive comanagement, the theory of participatory conservation plays a central role in the democratization of decisionmaking authority and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens. We observe, however, that the institutions of state, society, and economy shape the implementation and application of participation in significant ways across contexts. This paper examines the political ecology of participation by comparing and contrasting discourse and practice in four developed and developing contexts. The cases drawn from Central Asia, Africa, and North America illustrate that institutional dynamics and discourse shape outcomes. While these results are not necessarily surprising, they raise questions about the linkages between participatory conservation theory, policy and programmatic efforts of implementation to achieve tangible local livelihood and conservation outcomes. Participation must be understood in the broader political economy of conservation in which local projects unfold, and we suggest that theories of participatory governance need to be less generalized and more situated within contours of place-based institutional and environmental histories. Through this analysis we illustrate the dialectical process of conservation in that the very institutions that participation is intended to build create resistance, as state control once did. Conservation theory and theories of participatory governance must consider these dynamics if we are to move conservation forward in a way that authentically incorporates local level livelihood concerns.Keywords: participatory governance, political ecology, community-based conservation, environmental governance, discourse

Highlights

Participation has gained cache and traction in coupled development-conservation programs and projects all across the world (Cornwall and Brock 2005)
This paper examines the political ecology of participatory conservation by comparing and contrasting the discourse and practice in four contexts: Kenya, Zambia, the United States, and the People's Republic of China
In spite of strong rhetoric of participation in all four cases, we find significant variation of outcomes in the ways participatory discourse was implemented across contexts

Summary

Introduction

Participation has gained cache and traction in coupled development-conservation programs and projects all across the world (Cornwall and Brock 2005). We identify with what Forsyth defines as 'critical political ecology', an approach that questions the neutral validity of scientific explanations in politically charged contexts such as the socioenvironmental field, but it does not negate the existence of a 'real world out there' (2003:11) Such an approach enables this research to focus on the way the discourses of participation are framed in various socio-cultural contexts and the role of power and social relations in determining the right to access and management of natural resources (Berkes 2004; Brown 2003). The intersection of discourse and institutions Scholarship on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is an important subset of the participatory conservation literature that has identified local context as a key explanatory factor driving the effectiveness of a participatory intervention (Waylen et al 2010). As policy analysis of devolution and decentralization have indicated, the role of the state is still central in many cases of community-based natural resource conservation and management, much to the chagrin of CBNRM proponents

Methods

Case Studies

Discussion: participation as an outcome

Findings

Conclusions