Local Knowledge Contestation in Caprivi's Fishery
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MSC THESIS CHAIR GROUP: FOREST AND NATURE CONSERVATION POLICY, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY FISH NEVER FINISHES versus SHIFTING BASELINE SYNDROM Local knowledge contestation in Caprivi’s fishery management, Namibia Study programme: MSc. Forest and Nature Conservation (MFN) Author: Lisa Heider Supervisors: Dr. Paul Hebinck (Rural Development Sociology) Dr. Ir. Freerk Wiersum (Forest and Nature Conservation Policy) Thesis code: FNP-80436 FISH NEVER FINISHES versus SHIFTING BASELINE SYNDROM Local knowledge contestation in Caprivi’s fishery management, Namibia Wageningen, December 2012 Lisa Heider [email protected] II Abstract This study describes how local knowledge of fisher folk in Caprivi is contested by scientific actors from universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the ministry and donor agents. In the attempt to increase democracy and stimulate emancipation of the rural poor, the Namibian government principally supports the concept of CBNRM in the form of communal conservancies and fishery co-management schemes. In drawing up the rules of the game for the management of natural resources by local people, their knowledge, including interests, skills, beliefs and practices, is largely marginalized by the scientific community. Local knowledge becomes selectively studied, transformed and adapted to meet globally accepted, scientific standards for conservation. Mismatches between scientific and local knowledge are inevitably culture-based and found explained in the social, cultural and political history of actors within a knowledge network. This study aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the nature of local knowledge networks in NRM, hoping to assist in the acknowledgement of unrestricted, unmodified and unconditional local knowledge in autonomous NRM. An analysis of knowledge spaces is used to investigate the diversity of knowledge axioms and culture-based interests that shape the way scientific and local networks construct knowledge, give meaning and priority to it and how it is applied in fishery management. It identifies the manifestations of cognitive conflicts and knowledge struggles and it delineates how the scientific network contests local knowledge in theory and practice. For this, a qualitative case study was conducted with participatory observations and interviews with informants from the scientific network and fisher folk from a fish market and six fishing villages and conservancies in the eastern Caprivi floodplain, Namibia. The empirical findings revealed knowledge axioms typical for the respective knowledge spaces, resulting in deviating ways of knowing nature. Numerous incompatibilities between the two scientific and local knowledge spaces result in conflicts related to interest and priority struggles, legal and perceptual ties to powerful actors, unsustainability of methods, resistance to rules and regulations and conflicts on a community level. Contestation of local knowledge through the scientific network could be identified in the phases in fishery management: knowledge construction, prioritization and the development of methodologies. According to this study, the contestation could be accounted to the nature of the scientific knowledge space. This contestation reflects in fishery management concepts that are built on scientific self-referencing and disciplining, aiming at creating forms of local participation that are compatible with the scientific knowledge space. But the fundamental differences between both knowledge spaces prove impossible to align through force and top-down control. The consequences of such strategies for the local knowledge network showed in the destabilization of the local knowledge network and in the reshaping of project rules and state regulations targeting the sustainable management of fisheries. III Human agency of local actors in the context of their knowledge space should be accepted, or rather welcomed as diverse and inimitable ways of knowing nature, which can teach lessons to Western societies and scientific communities. Local knowledge of fisher folk in Caprivi must gain respect and recognition in the development of CBNRM projects in order to make them locally sustainable, relevant and local empowerment-supporting. To stimulate emancipation of local people and to fully benefit from the diverse aspects of local knowledge, the local knowledge space should directly feed fishery management, instead of passing through the scientific space where it becomes transformed by the scientific network. Keywords: scientific spaces, local spaces, knowledge axioms, local knowledge contestation, fishery co-management, conservancies, FPAs, local empowerment, Caprivi, Namibia IV Acknowledgement I specifically would like to thank my thesis supervisors, Dr. Paul Hebinck and Dr. Ir. Freerk Wiersum, who have made this learning experience a memorable and valuable one. Thank you for your kind support, respected suggestions and meaningful guidance during the course of the thesis development. I am also very grateful to Rodgers Lubilo, a Zambian Phd student from Wageningen University, who was my trusted person in Caprivi. Thank you for assisting me with all logistical, practical and emotional difficulties that I encountered during the field work. This study would have not been possible without the assistance from staff of the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), who allowed me to use their office facilities and helped me in establishing contacts in the local network. I would also like to thank Lancoh Moya for being my interpreter and friend during my time in Caprivi. A special word of thank goes to my friend Mekhala van der Schyff who accompanied me to Caprivi and assisted me in all possible ways. Thank you for your help, motivation and inspiration. Last but certainly not least, I thank all interview respondents for their trust and their time to share wonderful stories and meaningful information. Thank you for letting me be part of a different way of life. This experience has broadened my horizon and influenced the way I know nature. V Table of content Abstract III Acknowledgement V Table of content VI List of figures IX List of tables IX 1. Chapter 1- Introduction 10 1.1. Problem statement 10 1.2. Conceptual approach 10 1.2.1. Knowledge spaces 10 1.2.2. Knowledge networks in NRM 12 1.2.3. Local spaces in NRM 13 1.2.4. Scientific spaces in NRM 16 1.2.5. Local knowledge contestation in fishery management 18 1.3. Research objective and questions 22 1.3.1. Research objective 22 1.3.2. Research questions 22 1.3.3. Operational delineation 22 1.4. Methodology 23 1.4.1. Research design 23 1.4.2. Study area 24 1.4.3. Selection of informants 26 1.4.4. Methods for data collection 27 1.4.5. Methods for data analysis 29 1.4.6. Limitations 29 VI 2. Chapter 2- Historical background 31 2.1. Conservancies in Namibia 31 2.2. Fishery in Caprivi 33 2.2.1. Environmental conditions 33 2.2.2. Resource use patterns 33 2.2.3. Current management structure 34 2.2.4. Integrated Management of Zambezi/Chobe River 34 System Project 2.3. Community committees 36 3. Chapter 3- Interests and positions of actors 37 3.1. Local knowledge network 37 3.1.1. Knowledge construction 38 3.1.2. Prioritization 44 3.1.3. Methodologies 47 3.2. Scientific knowledge network 52 3.2.1. Knowledge construction 53 3.2.2. Prioritization 55 3.2.3. Methodologies 57 3.3. Conclusion 60 4. Chapter 4- Knowledge conflicts 63 4.1. Interest struggles and contradicting priorities 63 4.2. Legal and perceptual ties to the scientific knowledge network 64 4.3. Unsustainability of methods 68 4.4. Resistance to rules and regulations 70 4.5. Community conflicts 72 4.6. Conclusion 74 VII 5. Chapter 5- Discussion and conclusion 75 5.1. Manifestations of local knowledge contestation 75 5.1.1. Knowledge construction 75 5.1.2. Prioritization 80 5.1.3. Methodologies 81 5.1.3.1. Disciplining the local network 84 5.1.3.2. Local participation and self-referencing in fishery 85 management 5.2. Consequences of local knowledge contestation 88 5.2.1. Destabilization of local knowledge network 89 5.2.2. Local resistance and reworking of NRM approaches 92 5.3. Conclusive remarks 94 5.4. Reflections on theoretical and methodological research approach 99 approach Reference list 101 Appendix 1: Application letter for FPA VIII List of figures Figure 1: Conceptual model 23 Figure 2: Study area 24 Figure 3: Study site 26 Figure 4: Local knowledge of fish feeding grounds 38 Figure 5: Commercial fishery in Lusu village 40 Figure 6: Symbols of the local fishery management in Caprivi 43 Figure 7: Women fishing with mosquito nets 48 Figure 8: Traditional mokoros 50 Figure 9: NNF promoting the FPA concept to Sikunga conservancy and a Namibian TV 66 station Figure 10: The bulldog in relation to a 2-inch fishing net 69 List of tables Table 1: Study group division 26 Table 2: Theoretical positions and research implications 27 IX Chapter 1- Introduction 1.1. Problem statement In striving towards sustainable development of the rural poor, the Namibian government invests into strengthening national democracy and community emancipation. In the context of natural resource management (NRM), this has led to a current re-structuring of traditional state-controlled forms of management towards decentralized communal structures, such as communal conservancies (NACSO, 2011). However, in the attempt to empower local communities in NRM local knowledge still receives inadequate attention and recognition. Values, meanings, practices and goals of local people are continuously