Understanding the Divergent Recoveries of Protected Areas in Post-Conflict Mozambique
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Understanding the Divergent Recoveries of Protected Areas in Post-Conflict Mozambique Science, Technology, and International Affairs Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service Andrew (Ty) Loft Class of 2018 Thesis Advisor: Professor Meredith McKittrick 1 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Award of Honors in Science, Technology, and International Affairs, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, May 2018. Acknowledgments To Professor McKittrick: Thank you for all the help you have given me over the last fifteen months – I have benefited immensely from your talent for giving great advice without micromanaging. And thank you for having faith in me when I first told you over a year ago that I wanted to do thesis research in Africa, despite never having done primary research or spent time alone in Africa. You responded by asking whether I spoke French or Portuguese, which I think is indicative of your pragmatic approach to mentoring. I could not have done this without you. To Professors Lewis, Mendenhall, and Giordano: Thank you for reading and commenting on part or all of my thesis, for consistently having faith in an undergraduate doing research alone in Africa, and for guiding and supporting me toward the finish line. To the Lisa J. Raines Foundation: Thank you for funding my ten weeks in Mozambique. I am enormously grateful. To all the people I spoke to in Mozambique and South Africa: Thank you for giving me your time, for answering my questions, and for pulling my car out of the Mozambican sand all three times I managed to get myself stuck. I am enormously grateful to all the people who went above and beyond, generously hosting and feeding me in some of the most remote corners of the country. Especially, thank you to all the people who tirelessly work to make Mozambique’s parks better every day. To my cousin Izzy: Thank you for being my travel buddy in my final weeks in Mozambique, and for driving the long hours to Zinave, Limpopo, and Bazaruto. I will never forget eating canned tuna on the side of a dusty dirt road in the middle of the bush on the way to Zinave. To my friends: Thank you all for answering my frantic overwhelmed calls made from Mozambique, and for putting up with me, even when I’m telling the story of how I almost got squashed by an elephant in Maputo Special Reserve for the tenth time. To Mom and Dad: Thank you for your enormous, unconditional support, and for giving me the space and trust to pursue my passions in Africa. Thank you for talking me through my toughest moments, and for listening to me recount my best. I could not have even begun to dream of doing this without you. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. 2 Abstract Mozambique is uniquely situated for success as an ecotourism destination, due to its potential for charismatic wildlife, its spectacular coastline, and its location between established safari hotspots. Yet Mozambique’s conservation areas are largely underperforming. Animal populations have declined, and most parks receive fewer than 1000 tourists per year. Drawing from 35 interviews with diverse stakeholders in and around seven protected areas, this paper seeks to understand why the country’s parks have experienced divergent outcomes since the end of the civil war in 1992. Because the conflict flattened the state’s institutions, context-based factors and international interventions, rather than government institutions, have played an outsized role in determining parks’ successes. Parks with agreeable contexts and parks that have been able to acquire the support of international actors and retain human talent have succeeded, while those in challenging contexts and those reliant on state management have failed. Future research should create a framework systematizing successful interventions in post-conflict conservation environments. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................ 2 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................. 8 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 10 Findings and Analysis I: Evaluation of Selected Mozambican Parks ..................................... 12 Analytical Framework ................................................................................................................................ 12 Table 1: Evaluation of Mozambican Parks ................................................................................................. 14 Banhine National Park ............................................................................................................................... 16 Gorongosa National Park ........................................................................................................................... 16 Limpopo National Park .............................................................................................................................. 17 Maputo Special Reserve ............................................................................................................................. 19 Marromeu National Reserve ...................................................................................................................... 20 Zinave National Park .................................................................................................................................. 21 Other Parks ................................................................................................................................................. 22 Findings and Analysis II: The Conservation Landscape in Post-Conflict Mozambique ...... 23 Effects of War on Mozambican Conservation Estate ................................................................................. 23 Drivers of Park Outcomes in Post-Conflict Versus Non-Post-Conflict Countries ..................................... 26 Findings and Analysis III: Factors Shaping Divergent Recoveries of Mozambican Parks .. 28 Introduction and Framework ...................................................................................................................... 28 State-based Factors ..................................................................................................................................... 30 Law Enforcement ................................................................................................................................... 30 Bureaucracy ........................................................................................................................................... 31 Context-Based Factors ............................................................................................................................... 32 Location within Mozambique ................................................................................................................. 32 Natural and Aesthetic Resources ........................................................................................................... 36 Presence of People in and Around the Park .......................................................................................... 37 Intervention-Based Factors ........................................................................................................................ 37 Funding Level and Funds Allocation ..................................................................................................... 38 Management Style .................................................................................................................................. 40 Intervention Length ................................................................................................................................ 41 Management Priorities .......................................................................................................................... 42 Resettlement Strategy ............................................................................................................................. 43 Community Relations ................................................................................................................................. 44 Policy Recommendations and Conclusions ................................................................................. 46 List of Anonymous Interviews ...................................................................................................... 50 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................... 50 4 5 Introduction Mozambique is on the road to recovery a quarter century after the conclusion of its destructive civil war. While Mozambique remains one of the world’s ten poorest countries, it has become more stable, prosperous, and healthy since the signing of the Rome Accords in 1992.1 Travelers have again begun to take note of Mozambique’s natural beauty and other