Community-Based Management and Conservation in Africa

The overall goal of the case study is to help students understand some of the challenges and tradeoffs inherent in natural resource management in a developing world context. The students will learn about these topics in the context of three communities in Namibia, in which real events have been observed and documented. These communities are centrally located within a large, transboundary conservation area (Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area - KAZA), which is managed by five countries with the goal of conserving wildlife and natural resources while improving human well-being. Students learn about a complex socio-environmental system from biophysical, socio-economic, and cultural viewpoints and are introduced to the basic governance and management structure characteristic of these communities. Emphasis is placed on a multi-scalar (top-down and bottom-up) understanding of this system as it relates to globalization, coupled human-environment interactions, and trade-offs and synergies between conservation and development. Specifically, students will engage in a simulation activity in which they decide whether or not to relocate their respective community, balancing declining rain-fed agricultural production with an increasing need to conserve charismatic megafauna in Namibia. The case was created for introductory or mid-level conservation, wildlife and conservation, or environmental sociology courses, but it may also be appropriate for various geography courses and seminars. A PowerPoint file is also available as supporting material for the case study. This case has been peer-reviewed and published in the collection of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science:http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=745&id=745