Title: Nurturing Seeds of Association: Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala National
1Nurturing 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
2Masoala National Park, Madagascar
- Masoala National Park Habitat Types of the
Masoala Peninsula
- Source (Ormsby 2003) Source (Rubel et al 2003)
3Social 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
4Primary 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?
5What 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)
6Methods
- 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
7What 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).
8International 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
-
9Madagascar 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
10Local 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).
12Conclusions 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
13Possible 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
14References 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
15Misoatra-ô!