Nurturing Seeds of Association: Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala National - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 15
About This Presentation
Title:

Nurturing Seeds of Association: Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala National

Description:

Semester spent in Madagascar, Spring 2003 including month long independent study ... Integral to national environmental policy formation in Madagascar ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:60
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 16
Provided by: hdgcE
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Nurturing Seeds of Association: Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala National


1
Nurturing Seeds of Association Democracy and
Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala
National Park, Madagascar
  • Focus on Ch IV
  • Civil Society and Masoala National Park
  • Kate Mannle
  • Bates College
  • Lewiston, ME USA
  • For the TBPARI Teleseminar Series
  • 12 May, 2004

2
Masoala National Park, Madagascar
  • Masoala National Park Habitat Types of the
    Masoala Peninsula
  • Source (Ormsby 2003) Source (Rubel et al 2003)

3
Social and Political Factors to Understanding
Madagascar and the Masoala Region
  • Madagascar
  • urban/rural divide
  • national motto Unity Amongst Diversity
  • deeply felt but unspoken ethnic/regional divide
  • influences of British and French colonialism
  • Masoala Region
  • domination of Betsimisaraka by Merina ethnic
    group
  • 2001-2002 political and economic crisis
  • Violence, mass arrests, and kidnapping in
    northern and eastern provinces during the crisis
    have created mistrust, fear, and silencing of
    political views

4
Primary Research Question
  • Can democracy and conservation reinforce each
    other?
  • Would the park managements use of participatory
    methods of conservation make it a more legitimate
    and possibly more successful as a means of
    conservation?
  • Should conservation be used as a tool to promote
    democratization?
  • Is democracy beneficial to biodiversity
    conservation and is it necessary for biodiversity
    conservation?

5
What roles do international and local civil
society play at Masoala National Park?
  • International Civil Society
  • The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
  • CARE International
  • Local Civil Society
  • The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and
    Association National pour la Gestion des Aires
    Protégées (ANGAP)
  • The dina
  • Park related associations
  • Association des Guides Ecotouristique du Masoala
    (AGEM) (Ecotourism Guides Association of
    Masoala)

6
Methods
  • Semester spent in Madagascar, Spring 2003
    including month long independent study on
    ecotourism at Masoala National Park.
  • Interviews with park managers, employees, park
    guides, porters, cultivators, hotel and
    restaurant owners and local residents in
    individual and group formats
  • Participant observation used to record the
    actions and roles of various actors in and around
    the park
  • Gray literature such as brochures and park
    management plans collected in Madagascar
  • Archival research conducted in Madagascar and the
    U.S.
  • Interviews with WCS personnel in New York

7
What is Civil Society?
  • The realm of organized social life standing
    between individuals and political institutions of
    representation. (Hyden, 1998)
  • Transnational non-government organizations (NGOs)
    (Wapner, 1995)
  • disseminating an ecological sensibility
  • Help transform national policies and global
    agreements
  • Civil society promotes democracy by creating an
    environment for people to learn and practice
    democratic behavior (Marcus, 2000).

8
International Civil Society
  • The Wildlife Conservation Society
  • Participates in international environmental
    regimes, disseminates a particular ecological
    sensibility
  • Integral to national environmental policy
    formation in Madagascar
  • Acts on behalf of Masoala region
  • WCS policies and practices at Masoala
  • Focus on financial assistance, technical advising
    and scientific research
  • Conservation ethic reflects protectionist
    argument as defined by Wilshusen et al (2002).
  • Currently lacking a partner organization for
    development at Masoala

9
Madagascar Government institutions
  • Association National pour la Gestion des Aires
    Protégées (ANGAP)
  • Responsible for park outreach to local
    communities at Masoala
  • COGES program limitations
  • Park enforcement limitations

10
Local Civil Society
  • Local civil society in the Masoala region is
    generally weak (Marcus, 2000)
  • AGEM and other park related organizations
    starting to emerge
  • Important link between local people and park

11
  • De facto park management is somewhere between a
    modified version of fortress conservation and a
    limited protected-area outreach program as
    defined by Hulme and Murphee (2001).
  • Legitimacy of current conservation strategy given
    political and social situation? (Wilshusen et al,
    2002).

12
Conclusions about Civil Society at Masoala
National Park
  • Local, park related civil society such as AGEM
    has the ability to teach democratic values,
    encourage other local civil society, and develop
    its own non-Western conservation ethic
  • Through the encouragement of local civil society
    associated with the park, international civil
    society can reinforce both democracy and
    conservation at Masoala National Park

13
Possible Lessons
  • Danger of dependency
  • International civil society just reinforcing the
    status quo? (Chatterjee and Finger, 1994)
  • Possibilities for forming other independent
    guides associations in Madagascar?
  • Further research on park related civil society at
    other protected areas with attention to specific
    social and political dynamics

14
References and Acknowledgements
  • Chatterjee, P., Finger, M. (1994). The earth
    brokers Power, politics, and world development.
    New York Routledge.
  • Hulme, D., Murphee, M. (2001). Community
    conservation in Africa. In D. Hulme M. Murphee
    (Eds.), African wildlife and livelihoods The
    promise and performance of community
    conservation. Pourtsmouth Routledge.
  • Hyden, G. (1998). Building civil society at the
    turn of the millennium. In J. Burbidge (Ed.),
    Beyond prince and merchant Citizen participation
    and the rise of civil society. New York Pact
    Publications.
  • Marcus, R. R. (2000). Cultivating democracy on
    fragile grounds Environmental institutions and
    non-elite perceptions of democracy in Madagascar
    and Uganda. University of Florida.
  • Ormsby, A. A., Mannle, K. O. (2003). Ecotourism
    opportunities and challenges at Masoala National
    Park, Madagascar. (Forthcoming).
  • Rubel, A., Hatchwell, M., MacKinnon, J.,
    Ketterer, P. (2003). Masoala-The eye of the
    forest A new
  • strategy for rainforest conservation in
    Madagascar. Zurich Zoo Zurich Th. Gut Verlag.
  • Wapner, P. (1995). Politics beyond the State
    Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics.
    World Politics, 47(April), 311-340.
  • Wilshusen, P. R., Brechin, S. R., Fortwangler, C.
    L., West, P. C. (2002). Reinventing a square
    wheel Critique of a resurgent "protection
    paradigm" in international biodiversity
    conservation. Society and Natural Resources., 15,
    17-40.
  • Thank you to WCS, ANGAP and AGEM, Peter Rogers,
    and The Trans-Boundary Protected Areas Research
    Initiative

15
Misoatra-ô!
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com