Decolonizing Nature Strategies for Conservation in a Post-colonial Era Edited by William M Adams and Martin Mulligan Earthscan Publications Ltd London • Sterling, VA First published in the UK and USA in 2003 by Earthscan Publications Ltd Copyright © William Adams and Martin Mulligan, 2003 All rights reserved ISBN: 1 85383 749 0 paperback 1 85383 750 4 hardback Typesetting by PCS Mapping & DTP, Gateshead Printed and bound in the UK by Creative Print and Design (Wales), Ebbw Vale Cover design by Andrew Corbett For a full list of publications please contact: Earthscan Publications Ltd 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7278 0433 Fax: +44 (0)20 7278 1142 Email: [email protected] Web: www.earthscan.co.uk 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA Earthscan is an editorially independent subsidiary of Kogan Page Ltd and publishes in association with WWF-UK and the International Institute for Environment and Development A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Decolonizing nature : strategies for conservation in a postcolonial era / edited by William M. Adams and Martin Mulligan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85383-749-0 (pbk.) – ISBN 1-85383-750-4 (hardback) 1. Nature conservation–Great Britain–Colonies–Africa–Philosophy. 2. Nature conservation–Australia–Philosophy. 3. Colonization–Environmental aspects–Great Britain–Colonies–Africa–History. 4. Colonization–Environmental aspects–Australia– History. I. Adams, W. M. (William Mark), 1955- II. Mulligan, Martin. QH77.G7 D43 2002 333.7'2'0994–dc21 2002152952 This book is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper Contents List of figures and tables vi List of authors vii Acronyms and abbreviations x 1 Introduction William M Adams and Martin Mulligan 1 2 Nature and the colonial mind William M Adams 16 3 Decolonizing relationships with nature Val Plumwood 51 4 The ‘wild’, the market and the native: Indigenous people face new forms of global colonization Marcia Langton 79 5 Sharing South African National Parks: Community land and conservation in a democratic South Africa Hector Magome and James Murombedzi 108 6 Devolving the expropriation of nature: The ‘devolution’ of wildlife management in southern Africa James Murombedzi 135 7 Decolonizing Highland conservation Mark Toogood 152 8 Responding to place in a post-colonial era: An Australian perspective John Cameron 172 9 The changing face of nature conservation: Reflections on the Australian experience Penelope Figgis 197 10 When nature won’t stay still: Conservation, equilibrium and control William M Adams 220 11 Beyond preservation: The challenge of ecological restoration Adrian Colston 247 12 Feet to the ground in storied landscapes: Disrupting the colonial legacy with a poetic politics Martin Mulligan 268 13 Conclusions William M Adams and Martin Mulligan 290 Index 300 List of figures and tables FIGURES 5.1 Richtersveld National Park, South Africa 113 5.2 Kruger National Park and the Makuleke land claim 114 5.3 Proposed southern African trans-frontier conservation parks 123 5.4 The analysis of power in trans-frontier conservation areas 126 11.1 The ‘Black Hole’ 249 11.2 The East Anglian Fens 254 11.3 Area of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in English counties 255 11.4 Protected areas in Cambridgeshire by size 255 11.5 Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire 259 TABLES 5.1 The key elements of the land reform process, South Africa, post-1994 110 5.2 Number of households reclaiming their land in South Africa, post-1994 111 10.1 Contrasting dimensions within conservation 235 11.1 Loss of bird species in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire 248 11.2 Examples of species believed extinct at Wicken Fen 258 List of authors Adams, William H (Bill) Bill Adams is Reader in the Geography of Conservation and Development at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK. He has written several books, including Future Nature: A Vision for Conservation (Earthscan, 1996) and Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World (Routledge, 2001). He is interested in conservation and rural change, especially in Africa and the UK, and has served on the councils of the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust, the British Association for Nature Conservationists and Fauna and Flora International. Cameron, John John Cameron is a Senior Lecturer and coordinator of the postgraduate research programme in the School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). He initiated a series of national Australian colloquia on sense of place (held in the Blue Mountains, central Australia, outside Melbourne, and in Canberra), and has edited a volume of papers arising from those gatherings. Before joining UWS, he was employed by the Australian Conservation Foundation as a resource economist for research and consultancy on national forest policy and land management. Colston, Adrian Adrian Colston is the National Trust Property Manager for Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, UK. He has worked as a professional nature conservationist for 20 years for the Wildlife Trusts, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the National Trust. He has written several books, including The Nature of Northamptonshire, with Franklyn Perring (Barracuda Books, 1989) and Cambridgeshire’s Red Data Book, with Chris Gerrard and Rosemary Parslow (Wildlife Trust for Cambridgeshire, 1997). Figgis, Penelope Penelope Figgis is currently Vice President of the Australian Conservation Foundation (first elected in 1985), Director of the Australian Bush Heritage Fund and a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas. She was previously a member of the boards of management of the Environment Protection Authority of New South Wales, Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park, the Great Barrier Reef Consultative Committee and Landcare Australia, and a viii Decolonizing Nature director of the Australian Tourism Commission. Her major publications include Rainforests of Australia (Weldon, 1985), Australia’s Wilderness Heritage: World Heritage Areas, co-authored with J G Mosley (Weldon, 1988) and Australia’s National Parks and Protected Areas: Future Directions (Occasional Paper No 8, published by the Australian Committee for International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 1999). In 1994 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to conservation and the environment. Langton, Marcia Marcia Langton holds the Chair of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. She was the Ranger Professor at the Northern Territory University and Founding Director of the university’s Centre for Indigenous, Natural and Cultural Management. She is a well-known public figure in Australia, appearing regularly in the media and in documentary films concerned with indigenous issues. She is the author of Burning Questions: Emerging Environmental Issues for Indigenous Peoples in Northern Australia (Centre for Indigenous, Natural and Cultural Resource Management, Northern Territory University, 1998). Magome, Hector Hector Magome is Director of Conservation Services at South African National Parks, where he is responsible for developing biodiversity and livelihoods related practices. This includes developing management plans for national parks and managing scientific programmes for biodiversity research and monitoring. Before joining South African National Parks, Hector was responsible for implementing community wildlife extension programmes for the North West Parks and Tourism Board of South Africa. Mulligan, Martin Martin Mulligan is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning at the University of Western Sydney. He is co-author (with Stuart Hill) of Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and is general editor of the Australasian journal Ecopolitics: Thought and Action (Pluto Press Australia). He has been an environmental activist and active supporter of Aboriginal people and communities since the early 1970s. Murombedzi, James James Murombedzi is the Environment and Development Officer for Southern Africa for the Ford Foundation. He was previously a lecturer in political and social ecology at the Centre for Applied Social Sciences, University of Zimbabwe. His research has focused on the micro-political dynamics of natural resources management in the communal tenure regimes of Southern Africa. He has consulted for various organizations, including the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Global Environmental Facility and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. List of authors ix Plumwood, Val Val Plumwood is Australian Research Council Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra. She has published over 100 papers and four books, including The Fight for the Forests (as Val Routley, Australian National University Canberra, 1973), Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (Routledge, 1993) and Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (Routledge, 2002). She is an international pioneer of environmental philosophy, a forest activist and the survivor of an encounter with a saltwater crocodile in Kakadu National Park in 1985, which delivered a strong message about human vulnerability and the power and agency of nature. Toogood, Mark Mark Toogood teaches geography at the University of Central Lancashire and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Environmental