Rewilding the Anthropocene. Human-Animal Assemblages in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.

Situated in one of the world’s largest transboundary conservation areas The REWILDING project focusses on the social, economic and cultural ramifications and consequences of large-scale conservation in one of the world’s largest transboundary conservation areas, the Kavango-Zambezi Transboundary Conservation Area. Ecological trends, socio-economic dynamics and cultural transitions in this conservation area foreshadow developments connected to the ambitious aims of December 2022 COP15 discussions and its 30/30 goal. REWILDING attempts to understand complex social-ecological changes linked to conservation. REWILDING started in January 2022 with a preparatory phase including a number of topical and methodological workshops, a two-month exploratory field excursion, applications for research permits (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia) and additional work permits (Namibia) and coordination of field work plans with counterparts in four KAZA countries. This phase has been followed by a one-year phase of intense field work (which is now drawing to its end). While it is hard at this stage to pinpoint results from field work (all ECRs and also PostDoc and PI are still doing their last months of fieldwork) we will try to sketch some tentative insights pertaining particularly to work packages 1 and 2 and joined research into the history of conservation and the emergence of contemporary conservation efforts.
Colonial as well as postcolonial conservation policies in the region took off from the assumption (a) that conservation landscapes and areas of progressively intensifying human use must be strictly separated, (b) that it was the states duty to ensure that conservation measures were enacted, (c) that wildlife conservation was different from forest conservation, soil- and water conservation and necessitated a different state centered form of administration. This resulted in oppressive policies and occasional enforced relocations. Despite different political histories in the five KAZA countries the histories of conservation show astounding parallels and continuities with earlier colonial policies. These are connected to the stabilizing influence of international conservation organisations supporting path dependencies. The more recent history of community based conservation is characterized by similar parallels. Addressing past injustices directly or indirectly linked to conservation is a key concern of many rural communities and conservation NGOs and administrations still have to find ways how to address this challenge.
Rural economics in different KAZA countries have changed in different directions. Such changes are not always intensely connected to conservation – despite the overall conservation status of the KAZA TFCA. While in Zambia (tropical timber) and Zimbabwe (coal mining) extractivist strategies seriously compete with conservationist approaches, in Namibia agricultural development establishes a competing paradigm. Only in Botswana conservation related tourism seems to clearly dominate rural economics. Community based conservation as well as state-organised conservation has had little impact on poverty levels. In fact, the loss of access to natural resources as well as mounting human-wildlife conflict have added to poverty in some settings. The rural poor are hard to reach through conservation programmes, be they community based or state centered. Community conservation opens new livelihood options (only) for those who bring with them school education, time and capacities for employed labour and own (or have access to) resources to invest incomes in. Livelihood diversification is strongest in a radius of 5-10km around tourist enterprises such as hotels and camping grounds. Due to long term public-private contracts between community-based organisations of conservation (e.g. conservancies in the Namibian context) lodges, camping grounds, hunting camps and tour operators offer employment in rural settings where unemployment rates are extremely high.
There are significant social dynamics connected to conservation efforts. They reify the power of traditional authorities. Kings, chiefs and councillours have a profound say in all matters pertaining to natural resources including wildlife management. Community based conservation and parallel approaches at community based natural resource management further the built up of new organizational set ups and new institutions. Elected committees devising wildlife management plans and the zonation of landscapes, forest committees and waterpoint committees are new institutions in the rural societies of south-central Africa. At least formally they adhere to a logic which is very different of that of traditional political organisation. Democratic principles, gender equity and accountability or of key concern. The built up of these community based organisations is supported by national NGOs and international donors. The emergence of competing institutions and the emergence of hybrid institutions is of considerable significance for the understanding of decision making in rural settings in the entire KAZA area.