96 Book Reviews
aid results from the reporting of the research findings, then the book would have
failed in its endeavour to alter the modes of delivery.
The involvement of refugees themselves in gathering data, and the focus on participatory
methods, is an innovation which is both new and progressive. Dr
Harrell-Bond is, however, very frank about the methodological weaknesses inherent
in some of the methods of research used. This awareness of limitations of research
brings credibility to the major findings of her study.
The appendices contained at the end of the main text (74 pages) are as informative
as the text itself, especially the inclusion of the message of ICARA II which gives
added value to the book and places it in proper perspective.
Although this book contains a lot of valuable research experience and findings, its
length could reduce readership among the less academically oriented relief workers,
most of whom would benefit immensely from the findings of Dr Harrell-Bond's
study. Some of the detail makes inspiring reading to social scientists, but may put off
those that seek clear indications of ways to improve their service delivery. Parts of the
book express very personalised experiences of the author and these may not appeal
very much to those that do not share similar frames of reference.
The above comments are, however, not intended to discourage readership but
instead to indicate how intrigued the present writer was at reading through the book.
It was a rewarding experience and the book is recommended to anyone who cares
about the participation of recipients of aid in decisions about the delivery of assistance.
Reviewed by Stella Tendai Makanya, School of Social Work, Harare.
Conservation in Africa — People, Policies and Practice, David Anderson and
Richard Grove (eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987 (355pp, £35,
US$54,50 hbk).
This book's stated aim is to take an inter-disciplinary look at the practice and policies
of conservation in Africa. By so doing it hopes to shed some light on the important
social context of conservation. The book provides a solid case for the interrelatedness
of conservation and human development and searches for a model that is
complementary rather than competitive in approach.
Contributions from sixteen writers are split into four sections each with an
introductory chapter. The chapters in Part One deal with past and present conservation
ideologies in Africa; from the introduction of conservation legislation in the
Cape Colony in the mid-nineteenth century to the present debates about the need for
new forms of conservation policy. Part Two of the book considers conservation in the
context of wildlife and game parks, and in relation to African pastoralists who make
use of those same rangelands. Part Three looks at conservation priorities for rural
communities, with chapters dealing with indigenous and imposed resource management
systems. Finally in Part Four, conservation is considered in its present
relationship to development and a plea is made for more local democratic participation
in the management of the resources which are held 'in common ' (soil, water,
grass, trees, wildlife).
Environmental crisis and demographic collapse are scarcely new to Africa, despite
the western media image of an Africa that has changed from 'Tarzan's Garden of
Eden', a century ago, to the brink of a population and resource crisis today. The
Book Reviews 97
common laws observed by communities in the past, were routinely subject to
complex 'rights of access' and institutional arrangements which could, occasionally,
be threatened by natural and internecine human disasters. Following the plunder of
wildlife by the nineteenth century imperial adventurer, the colonial states' established
conservation policies based on statutory law. Local indigenous resources
became administratively fossilised whilst vast capital investments v\cic made 111
imported exotic resources. The inherent dialectic between the need to preserve and
the need to utilise natural indigenous resources was rudely interrupted and forced
underground into a very active informal utilisation system ('poaching'). Formal
utilisation was the preserve of the colonialists. Africa today still largely awaits the
time when the 'independent' nation state liberates its rural folk by allowing sustainable
utilisation of the resource base by the local user.
Throughout the book the importance of a historical perspective in understanding
the origins and evolution of present attitudes and approaches towards conservation
in Africa is given prominance and its social context is stressed. Thus the book serves
to introduce natural scientists to the social context and the social scientists to the
ecological context. The new breed 'social ecologist' recognises the sterility of
separating communities from state forests, game reserves and Recreational areas
when it is these same people who should be preserving these areas dirough access to
their useage. At present we witness conservationists trying to stem the tide of overexploitation
of renewable and non-renewable natural resources and on the other
hand we have people direcdy alienated from their own natural resource base. This
critical contradiction would be laughable if it were not so breathtakingly audacious
and serious.
The chapter entided 'The Hunting Ethos in Central Africa' should be compulsory
reading for all those ethnocentric western conservationists who emotively regard such
places as the Zambezi Valley as their special Garden of Eden; not to be despoiled by
the developmental needs of local populations living in contiguous areas. Wildlife
resources can clearly be seen to have subsidised colonial penetration during its initial
phase before mining and agriculture could pick up. In 1876 over 40 000 pounds of
ivory representing 850 elephants were traded in the Zambezi area alone. Naturally
such a bumper harvest could not be sustained for long.
Out of die colonial decimation of the renewable wildlife resources gjjew the need
for a conservation policy and also the institution of'the Hunt' or 'African Safari'.
"The need for a white [Colonial] subsidy being past, die need to feed Africans not yet
recognised, the link between conservation and the Hunt lay in the demarcation of die
privilege and power of the new rulers of Africa" (MacKenzie:58). Hence, today we
have the irony that a great part of the economic value of wildlife in Africa is drawn
from the international marketing of the Hunt or photosafari by governments through
safari and tourist operators. In contrast a local employee of die Mutare Mission in
1922 is quoted as saying: "Europeans took all the guns from Africans and refused to
let diem shoot game. But Europeans shoot game. Africans have to eat relish only with
vegetables. If an African shoots an animal with a gun, the African is arrested and the
gun is confiscated" (quoted by MacKenzie:57).
Richard Bell's chapter on 'Conservation widi a Human Face' lays out a table of die
costs and benefits, direct and indirect, in relation to the wildlife resource. These costs
and the benefits vary considerably between different sectors of society. 1 he costs
98 Book Reviews
related to alienated land, restrictions on resource use, damage to life and property are
mainly carried by rural populations. The political and financial costs of administering
conservation programmes are mainly carried by national governments. The
benefits of aesthetic and recreational experiences and scientific opportunities are
enjoyed mainly by foreigners and the urban elite. The benefit of national prestige and
foreign currency generated are enjoyed by national governments. The benefit of
most of the revenues are enjoyed by national governments and safari and tourist
operators.
Those living at the interface between settlement and wildlife carry most of the costs
and receive few of the benefits. Hence in Zimbabwe today we have the irony, in a
district like Nyaminyami, of an undernourished community sitting on a natural
resource goldmine experiencing the depredations of wildlife and precious few of the
benefits; whilst the state and private entrepreneur thrive on their resources. There
should be little surprise that such people look forward to possessing cattle to enhance
their means of production, rather than wildlife, once the tsetse fly is eradicated.
Several examples of the alienation of rural populations from their natural resource
base are given. A critical hard edge develops at the interface between state parks and
common land. This edge is particularly contentious when it separates pastoralists like
the Masai from valuable rangelands, especially during drought.
Zimbabwe's legislative base for wildlife management is held up as an example for
the rest of Africa as it gives landowners a high level of control and use rights to
wildlife on their land. Despite this, no communal land, at this point in time, has been
granted the right to manage and administer the wildlife resource in their own area.
We can witness the growth of wildlife management in the commercial farm sector on
'alienated' private land whilst the communal sector on 'unalienated' land is stagnant,
with revenues flowing out of the districts. It is a sad fact that some of the countries'
poorest districts are rich in renewable fauna and flora resource that are not
appreciated by the local people because they have no right to utilise them.
One leaves this book with a sense of injustice at the alienation of many local
communities from their local natural resource base, and also frustration at the lost
potential that could be reached through integrating development with conservation.
A vision of waste could be replaced with one where local communities (stretching
from Okavango, through the Zambezi and Luangwa Valleys right up to the Serengeti
Plains and on through Kenya up to the Simien Highlands of Ethiopia) become the
'Careful Predators'.
Such an exalted vision requires, as the book points out, that the alienation of local
people from their resources and means of production is ended, and future debate
revolves around the classic traditional issues of organisation of food supply, the exact
conditions of the soil in divergent regions, and productive methods necessary for
sustained exploitation.
This book is good and essential reading, opening up in a positive way the issue of
how people can procure a sustainable existence from their natural resource base.
The question of who pays the costs and who reaps the benefits would appear to be the
pertinent starting point.
Reviewed by Simon Metcalf, General Manager of the Nyaminyami Wildlife
Management Trust, Zimbabwe.