Published on GEOG 430: Human Use of Environment (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog430)

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Week 10 - Conservation and Protected Areas

The links below provide an outline of the material for this lesson. Be sure to carefully read through the entire lesson before returning to Canvas to submit your assignments.

Introduction

This week, we explore the challenges and opportunities for conserving and restoring wildlife populations and habitats in a humanized world. As you can imagine, there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution. Each region and human community has its own unique set of circumstances, which is what makes these efforts so challenging, but also so important to study.

The debate over how to sustain human livelihoods alongside healthy and diverse ecosystems is ongoing, and now is your chance to enter into the conversation. I hope that the readings for the week help spark your curiosity and lead you to insights about our complex relationship to other human and nonhuman communities. The more people thinking about how to deal with these challenging issues, the better!

Assignments Due During Week 10:

  • Take the Week 10 Quiz by Wednesday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
  • Submit your weekly Questions & Reactions by Wednesday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
  • Respond to your classmates Q&R posts by Friday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
  • Submit your Final Essay Outline of due by Tuesday at 11:59 pm Eastern.
    • Refer to the Final Essay Component: Outline Instructions [1] page in Lesson 9 for more information about this weeks deliverable.
  • Peer review two outlines of your fellow classmates' by Thursday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
    • After the Tuesday night deadline, return to the Final Essay Component: Outline assignment in the lesson 10 module and click on the Peer Review link to access the submissions that you will be providing feedback to.

Materials for Week 10:

  • Brian King (2010) Conservation Geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Politics of National Parks, Community Conservation and Peace Parks.
  • Roderick Neumann (2004) Moral and discursive geographies in the war for biodiversity in Africa.
  • David Simpson (Director) Milking the Rhino.

Week 10 Objectives:

At the end of this week, you should be able to:

  • Interpret and critique global trends in protected area management.
  • Compare the social, ecological, and economic impacts of "fortress conservation" with newer conservation strategies.
  • Analyze the impacts of community-based conservation efforts on wildlife populations and local communities.
  • Discuss the impacts of counter-poaching efforts on the lives of humans and wildlife who live and work in protected areas.
  • Suggest ways to improve projects that seek to integrate environmental conservation and poverty alleviation.

Let's dive in!

King "Conservation Geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa"

Dr. Brian King [2] is a geographer in our very own Geography Department here at Penn State, and his research focuses on human-environment relationships and political struggles in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region of the continent that has been a site of intense conservation efforts since the colonial era. In this article, he reviews the history of national parks and community conservation and explores the consequences of different models of conservation on local human and non-human communities.

As you read and reflect, consider these questions:

  • How do the models of colonial and national parks, community conservation, and Peace Parks differ in their strategies and outcomes? How are they similar?
  • How have certain conservation efforts come at the expense of indigenous human communities?
  • What are some pros and cons of participatory or community conservation?
  • Which of the "Three E's" of sustainability is the top priority of national parks? Community conservation? Peace Parks?
  • Can you think of ways to learn from and improve the three conservation models discussed here?

Registered students can access the reading in Canvas.

Neumann "Moral and discursive geographies in the war for biodiversity in Africa"

Roderick Neumann [3] is a professor of Geography and Chair of the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University. His research investigates how our conceptions of nature shape the landscape and on the conflict and violence associated with conservation areas in Africa. Since the 1980s, several African governments have responded to declining wildlife populations by issuing shoot-on-sight orders for ‘‘poachers’’ found within national parks. Neumann argues that biodiversity is being used to justify violence and human rights abuses.

As you read and reflect, consider the following questions:

  • How are Malthus's ideas about overpopulation growth and resource scarcity central to the logic of "shoot-to-kill" approaches to wildlife poaching?
  • Can you identify the different ideas about nature (and the value of animal lives) at stake in these different conservation models?
  • Pay close attention to how lines of difference are drawn between groups of people. In war-like models of wildlife conservation, who is "us" and who is "them"? Which people (and animals) are the government protecting? Which people are labeled as the enemy?
  • How are gender, race and colonial history used to simultaneously humanize wildlife and dehumanize poachers?

Registered students can access the reading in Canvas.

"Milking the Rhino" (2009)

The massive changes in wildlife populations and forests during the past century have spawned countless efforts at conservation and restoration, and "Milking the Rhino" explores the challenges faced by such efforts in two different regions in Africa.

Contact the instructor if you have difficulty viewing this image [4]
Registered students can click on the image above or the link below to watch the film.
http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://www.docuseek2.com/v/a... [5]
 

One of the significant transitions in wildlife conservation in recent decades has been a shift from "fortress conservation," which excludes local communities, to methods called "community-based conservation" or "integrated conservation and development projects," which try to include local residents in the design and implementation of wildlife protection.

As the film reveals, while these new integrated projects try to avoid the social and economic problems caused by earlier conservation efforts, they don't always find success.

This film provides a huge range of food-for-thought, and a few questions you might consider include:

  • After listening to James Ole Kinyaga's advocacy for preserving wildlife for tourism because they survive better than cattle, one of the village men asks, "What if we get a drought in tourism?" Does ecotourism make the Maasai culture more or less resilient? Why?
  • Would you feel ethical visiting an African eco-tourist lodge?
  • How are the expectations that European and American tourists carry with them to Africa problematic? How would a change in expectations improve relationships between local people and tourists?
  • What do you think should be done to rectify the history of displacing communities from today's national parks in Africa, if anything?
  • What example of "command and control" or "fortress" conservation do we have in the United States? Is our national park system significantly different from the African parks described in the film?
  • Is it contradictory to encourage hunting in order to conserve wildlife in Africa?
  • What are the benefits of Namibia's community conservancies, and which problems with human-wildlife conflict do they not solve?

Week 10 Assignments

Did this week's materials make you want to go on an African safari, or to avoid doing so at all costs? Can't wait to read your thoughts! Here are your assignments:

Keep in mind the objectives for this week:

  • Interpret and critique global trends in protected area management.
  • Compare the social, ecological, and economic impacts of "fortress conservation" with newer conservation strategies.
  • Analyze the impacts of community-based conservation efforts on wildlife populations and local communities.
  • Discuss the impacts of counter-poaching efforts on the lives of humans and wildlife who live and work in protected areas.
  • Suggest ways to improve projects that seek to integrate environmental conservation and poverty alleviation.

Assignments:

  • Week 10 Quiz by Tuesday at 11:59 pm Eastern.
  • Weekly Questions & Reactions by Tuesday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
  • Respond to your classmates' Q&R posts by Thursday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
  • Post your Final Essay Component: Outline of Final Essay due by Tuesday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
    • Refer to the Final Project Information page in Lesson 3 [6] for more information about this week's deliverable.
  • Peer review at least two outlines of your fellow classmates by Thursday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
    • After the Tuesday night deadline, return to the Final Essay Component: Outline assignment in the lesson 10 module and click on the Peer Review link to access the submissions for which you will be providing feedback.

All assignments will be submitted in Canvas, check the calendar in Canvas for specific due dates.


Source URL: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog430/node/151

Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog430/348
[2] http://www.geog.psu.edu/people/king-brian
[3] https://gss.fiu.edu/people/faculty/roderick-neumann/
[4] http://alias.libraries.psu.edu/eresources/proxy/login?url=http://www.docuseek2.com/v/a/gt6
[5] http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://www.docuseek2.com/v/a/gt6
[6] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog430/315