Asymmetric Power Relations on The Frontiers of The State: Resistance to a Hunting Ban in Nechisar National Park of Southern Ethiopia

Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2020     |     PP. 1-25      |     PDF (559 K)    |     Pub. Date: December 23, 2020
DOI:    228 Downloads     2343 Views  

Author(s)

Bayisa Feye Bedane, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia

Abstract
This paper concerns the ethnographic analysis of asymmetrical power relations created between actors holding competing views about nature conservation and preservation of cultural values in one of the highly conflict-affected protected areas in Ethiopia. The rhetoric of wilderness and the policies it implies were exported to Ethiopia to create protected areas in the 1960s. Since then, though resisted, it has been strengthened through conditional funding and technical supports by conservation NGOs of the global north. Taking the case of a hunting ban introduced through the creation of Nechisar National Park in southern Ethiopia, it is found that the top-down formation of the park and imposed hunting prohibitions have resulted in altering local values, targeted attacks and elimination of protected animals such as the Swayne’s hartebeest which the park was created to protect. A historical ethnographic approach was adopted from 2016 to 2018 to collect data alongside archival analysis, in-depth individual and group interviews, case appraisals, and observations.

Keywords
Imposed values, Nechisar park, power relations, resistance, hunting, dual impact

Cite this paper
Bayisa Feye Bedane, Asymmetric Power Relations on The Frontiers of The State: Resistance to a Hunting Ban in Nechisar National Park of Southern Ethiopia , SCIREA Journal of Environment. Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2020 | PP. 1-25.

References

[ 1 ] Adams, B., 2008. Green development: Environment and sustainability in a developing world. Routledge.
[ 2 ] Adams, W. M., & Hulme, D. 2001. If community conservation is the answer in Africa, what is the question?. Oryx, 35(3), 193-200.
[ 3 ] Adams, W.B., 2013. Against extinction: the story of conservation. Routledge.
[ 4 ] Adams, W.M. and Hutton, J., 2007. People, parks, and poverty: political ecology and biodiversity conservation. Conservation and society, 5(2), pp.147-183.
[ 5 ] Adger, W.N., Brown, K., and Tompkins, E.L., 2005. The political economy of cross-scale networks in resource co-management. Ecology and society, 10(2).
[ 6 ] Almudi, T. and Berkes, F., 2010. Barriers to empowerment: fighting eviction for conservation in a southern Brazilian protected area. Local Environment, 15(3), pp.217-232.
[ 7 ] Ayivor, J.S., Gordon, C. and Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., 2013. Protected area management and livelihood conflicts in Ghana: a case study of Digya National Park. Parks, 19(1), pp.37-50.
[ 8 ] Baker, J.E., 1997. Trophy hunting as sustainable use of wildlife resources in southern and eastern Africa. Journal of sustainable tourism, 5(4), pp.306-321.
[ 9 ] Baynham-Herd, Z., Redpath, S., Bunnefeld, N., Molony, T. and Keane, A., 2018. Conservation conflicts: Behavioural threats, frames, and intervention recommendations. Biological Conservation, 222, pp.180-188.
[ 10 ] Beale, C.M., van Rensberg, S., Bond, W.J., Coughenour, M., Fynn, R., Gaylard, A., Grant, R., Harris, B., Jones, T., Mduma, S. and Owen-Smith, N., 2013. Ten lessons for the conservation of African savannah ecosystems. Biological conservation, 167, pp.224-232.
[ 11 ] Bell, S., Hampshire, K. and Topalidou, S., 2007. The political culture of poaching: a case study from northern Greece. Biodiversity and conservation, 16(2), pp.399-418.
[ 12 ] Benjaminsen, T.A., 1997. Natural resource management, paradigm shifts, and the decentralization reform in Mali. Human ecology, 25(1), pp.121-143.
[ 13 ] Benjaminsen, T.A. and Svarstad, H., 2010, November. The death of an elephant: Conservation discourses versus practices in Africa. In Forum for development studies (Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 385-408). Routledge.
[ 14 ] Berkes, F., 2002. Cross-scale institutional linkages: perspectives from the bottom up. The drama of the commons, pp.293-321.
[ 15 ] Biggs, D., Cooney, R., Roe, D., Dublin, H.T., Allan, J.R., Challender, D.W. and Skinner, D., 2017. Developing a theory of change for a community‐based response to illegal wildlife trade. Conservation Biology, 31(1), pp.5-12.
[ 16 ] Biressu, A.N., 2009. Resettlement and Local Livelihoods in Nechsar National Park, Southern Ethiopia (Master's thesis, Universitetet i Tromsø).
[ 17 ] Blower, J., 1968. The wildlife of Ethiopia. Oryx, 9(4), pp.276-283.
[ 18 ] Brockington, D. and Igoe, J., 2006. Eviction for conservation: a global overview. Conservation and society, pp.424-470.
[ 19 ] Brockington, D. and Wilkie, D., 2015. Protected areas and poverty. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1681), p.20140271.
[ 20 ] Brockington, D., & Scholfield, K. 2010. The Conservationist Mode of Production and Conservation NGOs in sub-Saharan Africa. Antipode, 42(3), 551-575
[ 21 ] Brockington, D., 1999. Conservation, displacement, and livelihoods. The consequences of the eviction for pastoralists moved from the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania. Nomadic Peoples, pp.74-96.
[ 22 ] Brockington, D., 2002. Fortress conservation: the preservation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania. Indiana University Press.
[ 23 ] Debelo, A. R. 2012. Contesting views on a protected area conservation and development in Ethiopia. Social Sciences, 1(1), 24-43.
[ 24 ] Debelo, A. R. 2016. Wilderness or Home?: Conflicts, Competing Perspectives and Claims of Entitlement Over Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia (Vol. 66). LIT Verlag Münster.
[ 25 ] Del Campo, A.G., 2017. A conceptualisation framework for building consensus on environmental sensitivity. Journal of environmental management, 200, pp.114-122.
[ 26 ] Descola, P., 2013. Beyond nature and culture. University of Chicago Press.
[ 27 ] Dickman, A.J., 2010. Complexities of conflict: the importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human-wildlife conflict. Animal conservation, 13(5), pp.458-466.
[ 28 ] Dudley, N., Gujja, B., Jackson, B., Jeanrenaud, J.P., Oviedo, G., Phillips, A., Rosabel, P., Stolton, S. and Wells, S., 1999. Challenges for protected areas in the 21st century. Partnerships for protection: New strategies for planning and management for protected areas, pp.3-12.
[ 29 ] Emerton, L., Bishop, J. and Thomas, L., 2006. Sustainable Financing of Protected Areas: A global review of challenges and options (No. 13). IUCN.
[ 30 ] Ferraro, P.J. and Pattanayak, S.K., 2006. Money for nothing? A call for empirical evaluation of biodiversity conservation investments. PLoS biology, 4(4), p.e105.
[ 31 ] Garland, E., 2008. The elephant in the room: confronting the colonial character of wildlife conservation in Africa. African Studies Review, 51(3), pp.51-74.Gibson, C. C., &
[ 32 ] Geisler, C. and De Sousa, R., 2001. From refuge to refugee: the African case. Public administration and Development, 21(2), pp.159-170.
[ 33 ] Ghimire, K.B. and Pimbert, M.P., 1997. Social change and conservation: an overview of issues and concepts. Social change and conservation: Environmental politics and impacts of national parks and protected areas, pp.1-45.
[ 34 ] Gibson, C.C. and Marks, S.A., 1995. Transforming rural hunters into conservationists: an assessment of community-based wildlife management programs in Africa. World Development, 23(6), pp.941-957.
[ 35 ] Holmes, G., 2007. Protection, politics, and protest: understanding resistance to conservation. Conservation and society, 5(2), pp.184-201.
[ 36 ] Hulme, D. and Murphree, M., 2001. African wildlife and livelihoods: the promise and performance of community conservation. James Currey Ltd.
[ 37 ] Hundessa, T., 1996. Utilization of wildlife in Ethiopia. Walia, 1996(17), pp.3-10.
[ 38 ] Hurt, R. and Ravn, P., 2000. Hunting and its benefits: an overview of hunting in Africa with special reference to Tanzania. In Wildlife conservation by sustainable use (pp. 295-313). Springer, Dordrecht.
[ 39 ] Igoe, J., 2010. The spectacle of nature in the global economy of appearances: Anthropological engagements with the spectacular mediations of transnational conservation. Critique of Anthropology, 30(4), pp.375-397.
[ 40 ] Infield, M., 2001. Cultural values: a forgotten strategy for building community support for protected areas in Africa. Conservation Biology, 15(3), pp.800-802.
[ 41 ] Ingold, T., 2002. Culture and the perception of the environment. In Bush base, forest farm (pp. 51-68). Routledge.
[ 42 ] Kandagor, D.R., 2005. Rethinking pastoralism and African development: A case study of the Horn of Africa. Unpublished thesis master, Njoro: Egerton University.
[ 43 ] Kelboro, G., Stellmacher, T. and Hoffmann, V., 2013. 'Conservationists’ and the ‘Local People’in Biodiversity Conservation: The Case of Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 9(1), pp.29-56.
[ 44 ] Khan, M.T., 2013. Theoretical frameworks in political ecology and participatory nature/forest conservation: the necessity for a heterodox approach and the critical moment. Journal of Political Ecology, 20(1), pp.460-472.
[ 45 ] Kideghesho, J.R., 2008. Co-existence between the traditional societies and wildlife in western Serengeti, Tanzania: its relevancy in contemporary wildlife conservation efforts. Biodiversity and Conservation, 17(8), pp.1861-1881.
[ 46 ] Lindsey, P.A., Balme, G., Becker, M., Begg, C., Bento, C., Bocchino, C., Dickman, A., Diggle, R.W., Eves, H., Henschel, P. and Lewis, D., 2013. The bushmeat trade in African savannas: Impacts, drivers, and possible solutions. Biological Conservation, 160, pp.80-96.
[ 47 ] Maisels, F., Strindberg, S., Blake, S., Wittemyer, G., Hart, J., Williamson, E.A., Aba’a, R., Abitsi, G., Ambahe, R.D., Amsini, F. and Bakabana, P.C., 2013. Devastating decline of forest elephants in Central Africa. PloS one, 8(3), p.e59469.
[ 48 ] Mutanga, C.N., Muboko, N. and Gandiwa, E., 2017. Protected area staff and local community viewpoints: A qualitative assessment of conservation relationships in Zimbabwe. PloS one, 12(5), p.e0177153.
[ 49 ] Muth, R.M. and Bowe Jr, J.F., 1998. Illegal harvest of renewable natural resources in North America: Toward a typology of the motivations for poaching. Society & Natural Resources, 11(1), pp.9-24.
[ 50 ] Negi, V.S., Pathak, R., Sekar, K.C., Rawal, R.S., Bhatt, I.D., Nandi, S.K. and Dhyani, P.P., 2017. Traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation: a case study from Byans Valley in Kailash Sacred Landscape, India. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, pp.1-22.
[ 51 ] Neumann, R. P., 1998. Imposing wilderness: struggles over livelihood and nature preservation in Africa (Vol. 4). University of California Press.
[ 52 ] Neumann, R.P., 2001. Disciplining peasants in Tanzania: From state violence to self-surveillance in wildlife conservation. Violent environments, pp.305-327.
[ 53 ] Neumann, R.P., 2002. Imposing wilderness: struggles over livelihood and nature preservation in Africa (Vol. 4). Univ of California Press.
[ 54 ] Redpath, S.M., Young, J., Evely, A., Adams, W.M., Sutherland, W.J., Whitehouse, A., Amar, A., Lambert, R.A., Linnell, J.D., Watt, A. and Gutierrez, R.J., 2013. Understanding and managing conservation conflicts. Trends in ecology & evolution, 28(2), pp.100-109.
[ 55 ] Sanderson, S. and Redford, K., 2004. The defence of conservation is not an attack on the poor. Oryx, 38(2), pp.146-147.
[ 56 ] Scott, J.C., 1985. Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[ 57 ] Scott, J.C., 2008. Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. yale university Press.
[ 58 ] Steinhart, E.I., 1989. Hunters, poachers and gamekeepers: towards a social history of hunting in colonial Kenya. The Journal of African History, 30(2), pp.247-264.
[ 59 ] Tadie, D. and Fischer, A., 2013. Hunting, social structure and human–nature relationships in lower Omo, Ethiopia: People and wildlife at a crossroads. Human Ecology, 41(3), pp.447-457.
[ 60 ] Tsegaye, G., Dondeyne, S., Lemenih, M., Marye, A., Nyssen, J., Deckers, J.A. and Maertens, M., 2017. ‘Facing conservation’or ‘conservation with a human face’? People–park interactions in southern Ethiopia. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 11(2), pp.290-309.
[ 61 ] Van Vlissingen, P. and Pearce, F., 2005. Laird of Africa. New Scientist, 187(2512), pp.48-50.
[ 62 ] Vinthagen, S. and Johansson, A., 2013. ‘Everyday resistance’: Exploration of a concept and its theories. Resistance Studies Magazine, 1(1), pp.1-46.
[ 63 ] Von Essen, E., Hansen, H. P., Källström, H. N., Peterson, M. N., & Peterson, T. R. (2015). The radicalisation of rural resistance: How hunting counterpublics in the Nordic countries contribute to illegal hunting. Journal of Rural Studies, 39, 199-209.
[ 64 ] Weladji, R. B., & Tchamba, M. N. 2003. Conflict between people and protected areas within the Bénoué Wildlife Conservation Area, North Cameroon. Oryx, 37(01), 72-79.
[ 65 ] Wells, M.P. and McShane, T.O., 2004. Integrating protected area management with local needs and aspirations. AMBIO: a Journal of the Human Environment, 33(8), pp.513-519.
[ 66 ] West, P., Igoe, J. and Brockington, D., 2006. Parks and peoples: the social impact of protected areas. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 35, pp.251-277.
[ 67 ] Wilkie, D. S., & Carpenter, J. 1999. The potential role of safari hunting as a source of revenue for protected areas in the Congo Basin. Oryx, 33(4), 340-345.
[ 68 ] Wittmer, H., Rauschmayer, F. and Klauer, B., 2006. How to select instruments for the resolution of environmental conflicts?. Land use policy, 23(1), pp.1-9.
[ 69 ] Woodroffe, R., Thirgood, S. and Rabinowitz, A. eds., 2005. People and wildlife, conflict or co-existence? (No. 9). Cambridge University Press.
[ 70 ] Young, J.C., Marzano, M., White, R.M., McCracken, D.I., Redpath, S.M., Carss, D.N., Quine, C.P. and Watt, A.D., 2010. The emergence of biodiversity conflicts from biodiversity impacts: characteristics and management strategies. Biodiversity and Conservation, 19(14), pp.3973-3990.