People, Parks, and Power: The Ethics of Conservation-Related Resettlement

This book presents a critical review of the ethics of conservation-related resettlement. We examine what has become known as the＂ parks versus people＂ debate, also known as the ＂new conservation debate,＂ which has pitted indigenous and other local people against nation states and social scientists against ecologists and conservationists for the past several decades. Aiming to promote biodiversity conservation and habitat preservation, some biologists, park planners, and conservation organizations have recommended that indigenous and other people should be removed from protected areas.

Local people, for their part, have argued that residents of the areas that were turned into protected areas, national parks, game reserves and monuments had managed them in productive ways for generations and that they should have the right to remain there and to use natural resources as long as they do so sustainably. This position is often supported by indigenous rights organizations and social scientists, especially anthropologists. There are also some conservation-oriented NGOs that have policies involving a more human rights-oriented approach aimed at poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and social justice.

The book discusses biodiversity conservation, indigenous peoples (those who are ethnic minorities and who are often marginalized politically), and protected areas, those categories of land set aside by nation-states that have various kinds of rules about land use and residence.

The focus initially is on case studies from protected areas in the United States including Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Glacier National Park and on national monuments and historical parks where resettlement took place. We then consider issues of coercive conservation in southern Africa, including Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe), the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (Botswana), Etosha National Park, and Bwabwata National Park (Namibia), andKgalagadi Transfrontier Park (South Africa and Botswana). All of these cases involved involuntary resettlement at the hands of the governments.

In the book we consider some of the social impacts of conservation-forced resettlement (CfR), many of which tend to be negative. After that, we assess some of the strategies employed by indigenous peoples in their efforts to recover rights of access to protected areas and the cultural and natural resources that they contain. Examples are drawn from cases in Asia, Africa, and South America. Conclusions are provided regarding the ethics of conservation-related resettlement and some of the best practices that could be followed, particularly with regard to indigenous peoples.

Maria Sapignoli (B.A., M.A. University of Bologna, PhD University of Essex) is an Italian anthropologist in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Milano. She works on issues relating to indigenous peoples, identity, international organizations (notably, the United Nations and the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights), and the legal and anthropological aspects of indigenous and minority rights. Some of her fieldwork was conducted at the United Nations in the Secretariat of the UNPFII. Since 2006, she has carried out fieldwork in Botswana, mainly in areas related to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in western Botswana (Ghanzi District), in Gaborone, and in the High Court of the country. As part of her work, she did analyses of two Botswana High Court legal cases involving the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (2004-2006, and 2010-2011).

Robert Hitchcock is a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA and a board member of the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a nonprofit organization working on helping the peoples of southern Africa. Trained as an archaeologist, anthropologist, and remote sensing specialist, he examines issues relating to development, land use, and resettlement, primarily in eastern and southern Africa. Much of his work has been with the San (Bushmen) peoples of southern Africa. Hitchcock has had nearly 40 years of experience working on resettlement-related issues for several African governments (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).