Grantee Research Project Results
Politics, Economics, and Practice in Wildlife Conservation in Southern Africa
EPA Grant Number: U915610Title: Politics, Economics, and Practice in Wildlife Conservation in Southern Africa
Investigators: Manspeizer, Ilyssa E.
Institution: The State University of New York at Binghamton
EPA Project Officer: Lee, Sonja
Project Period: August 1, 1999 through August 1, 2002
Project Amount: $68,602
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Fellowship - Social Sciences , Academic Fellowships , Environmental Justice
Objective:
The objectives of this research project are to: (1) explain how the practice of community-based wildlife conservation in a southern African state is informed by the political, economic, and programmatic context in which conservation occurs; and (2) uncover the networks used by various parties and individuals to transfer ideas and participate in conservation activities, as well as the power relations that underlie them.
Approach:
Field work will be conducted in Zambia. Study time will be equally divided between a rural community that is ostensibly involved in a community-based conservation program and the capital city, where decisions regarding conservation policy and practice are made. Interviews will be conducted with representatives of the following groups: local communities, private safari operators, professional hunters, government officials, and representatives of nongovernmental and multilateral organizations. Relevant informants from each of these groups will be identified, and personal data, perceptions about community-based conservation, and alliance network information will be collected. More in-depth interviews will be conducted with several members of each group, conservation meetings will be observed, and archives will be explored. Additional information from sources based in the United States will be gathered. To ease the analysis, all qualitative data will be entered into a text management program, such as Ethnograph v5.0. The understanding gained through this project of how ideology, politics, and economics can inform participants' behavior will make it possible to examine whether specific indigenous communities and natural resources can coexist in practice.
Supplemental Keywords:
fellowship, risk management, sustainable development, decisionmaking, community-based, conservation, sociological, southern Africa, wildlife, politics, power., RFA, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Scientific Discipline, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Geographic Area, POLLUTION PREVENTION, sustainable development, Resources Management, decision-making, Ecology and Ecosystems, International, Economics & Decision Making, Social Science, South Africa, ecosystem valuation, public resources, biodiversity option values, collaborative resolution, decision analysis, decision making, environmental assets, community based environmental planning, conservation, environmental values, politics, environmental policy, wildlife conservation, wildlife habitat, economic objectives, land useProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.