Rights Resources and Rural Development: Community-based Natural Resource Management in Southern Africa

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is an approach that offers multiple related benefits: securing rural livelihoods; ensuring careful conservation and management of biodiversity and other resources; and empowering communities to manage these resources sustainably. Recently, however, the CBNRM concept has attracted criticism for failing in its promise of delivering significant local improvements and conserving biodiversity in some contexts. This book identifies the flaws in its application, which often have been swept under the carpet by those involved in the initiatives. The authors analyse them, and propose remedies for specific circumstances based on the lessons learned from CBNRM experience in southern Africa over more than a decade. The result is essential reading for all researchers, observers and practitioners who have focused on CBNRM in sustainable development programmes as a means to overcome poverty and conserve ecosystems in various parts of the globe. It is a vital tool in improving their methods and performance. In addition, academics, students and policy-makers in natural resource management, resource economics, resource governance and rural development will find it a very valuable and instructive resource.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Synthesis � The Fundamentals of Community-based Natural Resource Management * Community-based Natural Resource Management and Rural Livelihoods * Political Economy, Governance and Community-based Natural Resource Management * Putting Out Fires: Does the 'C' in CBNRM Stand for Community or Centrifuge? * Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation with Rural Development: The Holy Grail of CBNRM? * Part 2: Case Studies - Community-based Natural Resource Management, Traditional Governance and Spiritual Ecology in Southern Africa: The Case of Chiefs, Deviners and Spirit Mediums * The Contribution of Bees to Livelihoods in Southern Africa * Everyday Resources are Valuable Enough for Community-based Natural Resource Management Programme Support: Evidence from South Africa * Community-based Resource Management in the Okavango Delta * Local Ecological Knowledge and the Basarwa in the Okavango Delta: The Case of Xaxaba, Ngamiland District * a Land Without Fences: Range Management in Lesotho * Beach Village Committees as a Vehicle for Community Participation: Lake Malombe/Upper Shire River Participatory Programme * Key Issues in Namibia's Communal Conservancy Movement * The Torra Conservancy in Namibia * The Tchumo Tchato Project in Mozambique: Community-based Natural Resource Management in Transition * The Richtersveld and Makuleke Contractual Parks in South Africa: Win-win for Communities and Conservation? *The Lungwa Integrated Rural Development Project, Zambia * Community Wildlife Management in Zimbabwe: The Case of CAMPFIRE in the Zambezi Valley * New Configurations of Power Around Mafaungautsi State Forest in Zimbabwe * Conclusions and Recommendation: What We Have Learned from a Decade of Experimentation * Index

About the Author :
Christo Fabricius is Professor of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, South Africa. Eddie Koch is a Director of Mafisa Research and Planning, South Africa. Hector Magome is Director of Conservation Services at South African National Parks. Stephen Turner works at the Centre for Cooperation, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.