Doctoral Dissertation Research: Another Botswana Success Story? People and Park Relations in Chobe National Park, Botswana

博士论文研究：博茨瓦纳的另一个成功故事？

• 批准号: 0929009
• 负责人: Louise Fortmann
• 金额: $ 1.02万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0929009&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Another; Botswana

This project is centered on a case study of the relations between people around Chobe National Park in northern Botswana, and the Park itself. Here, where forty years ago the creation of the park dispossessed local people of their access to nearby forest products and grazing lands, transgression of park boundaries and policies is low and no visible resistance movement against the park has developed. This situation is unusual given numerous similar paradigms of "fortress conservation" that have resulted in high poaching and severe conflict between local residents and park authorities. What explains this seemingly anomalous Botswana case? For what reasons and through what mechanisms has a certain level of acquiescence for the presence of the park and nearby protected areas emerged amongst Chobe Enclave villagers? Ph.D. student Clare Gupta, under the supervision of Dr. Louise Fortmann at the University of California - Berkeley will explore this unique relationship between the Chobe National Park and Chobe residents. Study of this atypical case where local people seem to have developed a certain level of consent for the presence of a wildlife park, a potential measure of the park's "success," this project seeks to determine some of the enabling conditions for protected area sustainability. For this study, Africanist anthropological theories of agrarian resource-use and changing modes of rural production will be applied to understand how people living on the edges of Chobe National Park have re-worked their livelihood practices in relation to the park, and its effects within the context of broader political economic conditions. In addition, recent considerations of critical human geographers on rural-urban interconnections in southern Africa will be employed to understand how Chobe National Park has influenced the economic and social relations that connect the rural Enclave to other places, and what these changing connections indicate for processes of livelihood and demographic change in the Chobe region of northern Botswana. The research will seek to broaden political ecology's line of study by suggesting that over time, people may be able to re-make their relationship with the landscape in response to the establishment of parks and protected areas. The research is comprised of two objectives: first, to examine if and how livelihood strategies employed by individuals and households in the Enclave have shifted in response to the presence of the park; and second, to determine the implications of these altered livelihood strategies for village demographic composition, household structure and social relations (e.g. roles and responsibilities) between family members of different ages and gender. To study these changes, a mixed methods approach will be used that will include surveys, interviews and reviews of government statistics (e.g. census and land application data) as well as other relevant secondary literature. The study site for this research lies in Botswana's Chobe region; however the societal significance of the work extends beyond these borders. The question of how to reconcile the goals of wildlife conservation with the needs of local people living near wilderness areas is a pressing one, particularly in large parts of the global South today. Given the shortage of long term data on people and park relations, this research will provide particularly useful information on how and why human-environment interactions change over time and will suggest practical implications for the implementation and sustainability of conservation projects. In examining the key social, economic and political factors that influence the ways in which people respond to changing environmental conditions, the research will highlight a complex set of processes often unaccounted for in static environmental management plans and sustainability initiatives. In this way, the research will contribute to larger debates on both the nature of changing society-environment relations and the practical ways in which conflicts between wildlife preservation and rural livelihoods might be potentially resolved.

该项目的重点是对博茨瓦纳北部乔贝国家公园周围的人们与公园本身之间关系的案例研究。四十年前，公园的建立剥夺了当地人获得附近森林产品和牧场的权利，侵犯公园边界和政策的行为很少，也没有出现针对公园的明显抵抗运动。这种情况是不寻常的，因为有许多类似的“堡垒保护”范式导致了偷猎率很高以及当地居民和公园当局之间的严重冲突。如何解释博茨瓦纳这起看似反常的案件？出于什么原因，通过什么机制，乔贝飞地村民对公园和附近保护区的存在有一定程度的默许？博士加州大学伯克利分校的学生克莱尔·古普塔 (Clare Gupta) 在路易斯·福特曼 (Louise Fortmann) 博士的指导下，将探索乔贝国家公园和乔贝居民之间的这种独特关系。 通过对这一非典型案例的研究，当地人似乎对野生动物公园的存在产生了一定程度的同意，这是衡量公园“成功”的一个潜在标准，该项目旨在确定保护区可持续发展的一些有利条件。 在这项研究中，非洲人类学关于农业资源利用和农村生产模式变化的理论将被用来了解生活在乔贝国家公园边缘的人们如何重新调整他们与公园相关的生计实践，及其在更广泛的政治经济条件下的影响。此外，关键人文地理学家最近对南部非洲城乡联系的思考将被用来了解乔贝国家公园如何影响连接农村飞地与其他地方的经济和社会关系，以及这些不断变化的联系对博茨瓦纳北部乔贝地区的生计和人口变化过程意味着什么。该研究将寻求拓宽政治生态学的研究范围，表明随着时间的推移，人们可能能够根据公园和保护区的建立来重新建立与景观的关系。该研究由两个目标组成：首先，检查飞地中的个人和家庭所采用的生计策略是否以及如何随着公园的存在而发生变化；其次，确定这些改变的生计策略对村庄人口构成、家庭结构以及不同年龄和性别的家庭成员之间的社会关系（例如角色和责任）的影响。为了研究这些变化，将采用混合方法，包括调查、访谈和政府统计数据（例如人口普查和土地申请数据）以及其他相关二手文献的审查。这项研究的研究地点位于博茨瓦纳的乔贝地区；然而，这项工作的社会意义超出了这些界限。如何协调野生动物保护的目标与居住在荒野地区附近的当地人的需求是一个紧迫的问题，特别是在当今全球南方的大部分地区。鉴于缺乏有关人类和公园关系的长期数据，这项研究将提供关于人类与环境相互作用如何以及为何随时间变化的特别有用的信息，并将对保护项目的实施和可持续性提出实际影响。在研究影响人们应对不断变化的环境条件的方式的关键社会、经济和政治因素时，该研究将强调静态环境管理计划和可持续发展举措中经常未考虑到的一组复杂过程。通过这种方式，该研究将有助于就不断变化的社会与环境关系的本质以及可能解决野生动物保护与农村生计之间冲突的实际方式进行更广泛的辩论。