Abstract
Abstract : It is widely assumed that the fortress-like methods typically used for managing protected areas will be unsustainable in the face of a growing human population. In order to help justify the future of conservation, people-oriented management strategies have been created to enable development in under-resourced rural communities living around protected areas. Despite the promise of these strategies, issues of ownership, management, and access to resources in protected areas remain highly contested by stakeholders. Stakeholder engagements over resources are linked to the health of natural and social systems, but this relationship is poorly understood. Since the management and use of natural resources in and around protected areas is affected by the interactions of stakeholders, understanding how to optimise working relationships between stakeholders is critical for the effective management of protected area centred ecosystems. This study is based on two in-depth studies of ecotourism concessions in Tanzania as well as a case investigated outside of Tanzania, a private game reserve in South Africa. It makes use of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis to gather contextually sensitive data that yields understanding on the complex human aspects of socioecological problems. The thesis focuses on social factors influencing co-operative natural resource management. Findings emphasize the important influence of ad-hoc human behaviour on the outcome of co-operative natural resource management. In particular cooperation, power, and trust were found to be pervasive issues that were not only influential in determining stakeholder engagement outcomes, but also had a significant impact on natural resources in and around the protected areas in question. Recommendations are given for practitioners in each of the three cases and a more generalised set of guidelines for stakeholder interactions in natural resource co-management are abstracted from a cross-case analysis.
Ph.D.(Geography)