Virunga National Park: Explaining Conservation Amidst Chaos A thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University A S In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree POLT Master of Arts • H3T- In Political Science by Sean Everett Harris San Francisco, California August 2016 Copyright by Sean Everett Harris 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Virunga National Park: Conservation Amidst Chaos by Sean Everett Harris, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Political Science at San Francisco State University. Jami^Martel, PhD Professor Virunga National Park: Explaining Conservation Amidst Chaos Sean Everett Harris San Francisco, California August 2016 This thesis investigates the way in which a mid-level government agency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a failed state, was able to successfully achieve conservation goals in a post-war context in the 1990s and first decades of the 21st century. This thesis argues that the agency, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, was able to meet its strategic goals through a tactical approach to social and political issues. This thesis argues that the agency began to provide governance—specifically, public service provisioning, security, and agenda setting—for the region. I suggest the case offers insights into alter-states, with governance provided by an entity other than the central state apparatus of that given territory. I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis. fl- IA<^ . S ^ Z o ( (3 Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to acknowledge my committee members, Professor Nicole Watts and Professor James Martel. The amount of editing Professor Watts did for me was perhaps inhumane of me to ask of one woman. She provided pointed criticism where necessary and encouragement on exactly the days that were filled with discouragement. By recommending specific texts for me to read, namely Foucault’s Security, Territory, and Population lectures, Professor Martel gave this paper the theoretical soul for which it had been wanting. I also want to acknowledge my dear friend Kenneth Sexauer, who not only edited each version of each chapter before I sent them to Professors Watts and Martel, but providing a sounding board for my arguments as I developed them. Lastly, I also must acknowledge the numerous faculty and staff of SFSU as well as my family who, though not mentioned here by name, gave me guidance, support, and the relief of friendship along the way. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Section 1: Research Puzzle - Besieged Park as Conservation Oasis.......................4 Section 2: The State-in-Society Approach and the Melange Model........................ 8 Section 3: Tracking the Three Shifts in Virunga.....................................................10 Section 4: Methodology..............................................................................................13 Section 5: Thesis Organization................................................................................. 14 Chapter 2: Literature Review................................................................................................. 16 Section 1: Conceptualizing State Failure (in the Developing World).................... 18 Section 2: Governance Solutions to State Failure .................................................. 25 Section 3: Conservation in Troubled areas: the Revolving door of Conflict and Environmental Degradation....................................................................................... 33 Section 4: (Towards a Theory of) Green Peacemaking and Sustainable Governance..................................................................................................................37 Section 5: Summing up the State Failure and Conflict Resolution Literature in the Context of Virunga National Park ............................................................................43 Chapter 3: Effects of State Failure on Conservation in Virunga National Park.................45 Section 1: The Flora and Fauna of Virunga National Park.....................................45 Section 2: Applying State Failure Theory to the Democratic Republic of the Congo -1996 to the Present...................................................................................... 49 Section 3: The Rwandan Genocide and the Refugee Crisis in the Eastern DRC Effects on Virunga..................................................................................................... 53 Section 4: Foreign Correspondents in Post-Bellum Virunga .................................58 Section 5: Embattled Virunga Fights back: Rebels on Retreat Double Down......61 Chapter 4: Conservation and Conflict in the Eastern Congolese Melange .......................66 Section 1: Migdal’s Concept of the Melange...........................................................72 Section 2: Social Grouping in the Eastern Congo....................................................77 Section 3: Dividing Lines in the Eastern Congolese Melange .............................. 96 Chapter 5: Virunga National Park’s State-building Tactics and Conservation Strategy 102 Section 1: The Leveraging of Virunga National Park’s Symbolic Importance... 104 Section 2: Developing Sustainable Industries in Virunga National Park: Tourism, Fishing, and Agro-Industry................ 109 Section 3: Providing Governance in Virunga National Park................................115 Section 4: Tactical Governance Enables Conservation Goals in Virunga National P ark ............................................................................................................................120 Chapter 6: Conclusions and Implications 123 References................................................. 131 Chapter 1: Introduction In 1993, fleeing the violence of the Rwandan genocide, refugees began to enter the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through North Kivu, a province far to the east of the capital city of the DRC, Kinshasa (Steams 2012). Parc National des Virunga (Virunga National Park) sat at what was the epicenter of the conflict, and while not completely insulated from the fighting, park staff was able to both maintain a semblance of order and expand its conservation efforts. As early as 1988, in conflicts that preceded the genocide, anti-Rwandan rebels began operating in and near the park (Prunier 2009, 25). In the aftermath of the genocide, the strain on the park vastly increased, with hundreds of thousands of refugees camping in and around the park from 1993 to 1996 (Prunier 2009, 25). On October 27, 2007, more than a decade after the genocide, Congres national pour la defense du peuple or National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebels seized the headquarters of the park (CNN 2008, Rosen 2014). Because of the violence in and around the park forced park rangers, off and on, to hide in the jungles of the park, often for months at a time. This because even being associated with the national government meant death at the hands of anti-government rebels. Despite the violence and subsequent refugee crisis, park leaders have been able to push forward with conservation efforts. That the park has been able to effectively recuperate operations is critical due to its high value as a home to nearly a third of the roughly 900 remaining silverback gorillas in the world, with nearly 250 silverbacks living 2 in the park itself (Jenkins 2008). In the first decade of the new century, despite the sporadic activity of armed groups in the park (10 gorillas were killed by rebels since 2007), the population of gorillas in the park increased by almost 20 percent (Jenkins 2008). Additionally, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), or the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, the Congolese ministry tasked with the management of all national parks in the DRC, has been able to decrease charcoal smuggling in the park (Virunga 2016). The illicit charcoal trade had reached a high point in the years (1995-2000) following the Rwandan Genocide in large part due to the subsequent refugee crisis in the Eastern Congo. However, because of a perceivably stabilizing environment in the first decade of the new millennium—and despite the continued presence of active rebel groups—Virunga has seen tourism rise from zero visitors in 2008 to over 3,000 in 2011, bringing with them revenue and legitimacy for the park (Natasegara 2014).1 Additionally, park authorities have been able to stave off a prospective venture by SOCO international, a British petroleum company that bought a concession from the Kinshasa government to conduct explorations within and around the park for oil.2 This 1 That there are two parks, Parc National des Volcans (Volcanoes National Park) in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, that are conjoined with Virunga forming a large swath o f territory that serves as a refuge for roughly 450 total gorillas. Additionally, there is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda that is home to the remaining mountain gorillas. These three parks, similarly exposed to instability as Virunga was, serve as excellent comparisons to Virunga in-so-far as they offer examples of other agencies have dealt with relative instability and have