Struggles over conservation space

Transcription

1 Struggles over conservation space Social justice in the isimangaliso Wetland Park South Africa Melissa Hansen Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS)

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3 Inter- Disciplinarity

4 Sustainability Science LUCID PhD Group Physical Geography Human Geography

5 L U C I D Faculty of Humanities Philosophy Faculty of Science Earth & Ecosystem Sciences Faculty of Social Science Political Science Human Geography Human Ecology LUCSUS Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies

6 Struggles over conservation space Social justice in the isimangaliso Wetland Park South Africa Melissa Hansen Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS)

7 Struggles over conservation space Global UNESCO, 981 World Heritage sites National 8 World Heritage sites in SA Local isimangaliso Wetland Park (IWP), South Africa s 1st UNESCO World Heritage site (1999) 1

8 Geographical location of the IWP Biodiversity-rich wetlands 2

9 South Africa Spatial inequality on the basis of race homelands Fortress conservation fencing and fines The Constitution (RSA, 1996) The Bill of Rights: Ecologically sustainable development The National Development Plan (NDP, 2012) A democratic developmental state? Market-based conservation & state-driven ecological modernisation 3

10 Social justice? The viability of winwin solutions? New social-ecological relations Who gains what? And at the expense of whom? Inclusion and exclusion 4

11 Format: Article collection I. Hansen, Melissa, Vasna Ramasar, and Kent Buchanan (2014). Localising Global Environmental Governance Norms: Implications for Justice. In: Governance for Justice and Environmental Sustainability: Lessons Across Natural Resource Sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. M. Sowman & R.W. Wynberg. Cape Town: Routledge. II. Hansen, Melissa New geographies of conservation and globalisation: the spatiality of development for conservation in the isimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa. Journal of Contemporary African Studies no. 31 (3): III. Hansen, Melissa, Mine Islar, and Torsten Krause (manuscript, submitted to a peer-reviewed journal). The politics of natural resource enclosure in South Africa and Ecuador. IV. Hansen, Melissa, Turaj S. Faran, and David O Byrne (manuscript, submitted to a peer-reviewed journal). The Best Laid Plans: Environmental conservation and human development in South Africa the case of the isimangaliso Wetland Park. 5

12 The embedded case: Contestations over land Social-ecological relations Occupation dates back 700 years Raphia Palm Palm-nut vulture (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) 6

13 The embedded case: Contestations over land Social relations Tribal authority area Communal land Title deeds are absent 7 Coastal Forest Reserve land claim (...still to be settled)

14 8 Theoretical approach

15 Data construction strategy 6 field visits Narrative drive IWPA interviews (6) Conversations Household interviews Focus groups Page 12 Continuous review of policy documents & newspaper articles Close reading and application of theory to data 9

16 Findings: A space of inclusion and Contradictions between normative frames at different levels: Global Sustainability discourses/the conservation of global biodiversity Regional and national exclusion Ecological modernisation and economic growth Fencing out New rules for conservation management Enclosure of conservation space Consolidation of state control Exemplifying a politics of sustainability

17 Findings: Human freedom Primary assets X Land entitlement X Access to natural resources X Physical infrastructure Instrumental freedoms Social opportunities X Economic opportunities X Representation & consultation Land alienation Social alienation 17 Social (in)justice 11

18 The struggle continues... Everyday resistance Agency 12

19 Post-doctoral project Counter-relationships of resistance to (spatial) domination and subjugation Interrogate the contribution of new social movements in the IWP, to the expansion of political space and participation in contemporary conservation policy and management in South Africa How can new constructions of social space in the IWP serve as platforms for creative and constructive strategies of social-ecological transformation? Autogestion a spatialized struggle for democratic autonomy 19