University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2007 Legitimacy and the Use of Natural Resources in Kruger National Park, South Africa Randy Tanner The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Tanner, Randy, "Legitimacy and the Use of Natural Resources in Kruger National Park, South Africa" (2007). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 619. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/619 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LEGITIMACY AND THE USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA By Randy Tanner M.S., Resource Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 2004 B.S., Mathematics, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, 2001 Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry The University of Montana Missoula, MT Autumn 2007 Approved by: Dr. David A. Strobel, Dean Graduate School Wayne Freimund, Chair Department of Society and Conservation Perry Brown College of Forestry and Conservation Mike Patterson Department of Society and Conservation Doug Dalenberg Department of Economics Karen Adams Department of Political Science Tanner, Randy, Ph.D., December 2007 Forestry Legitimacy and the Use of Natural Resources in Kruger National Park, South Africa Chairperson: Wayne Freimund Around the globe, protected area managers confront an increasingly complex web of interests and demands, expressed by a variety parties, that often compete or conflict. When an action concerning the governance and management of a protected area is infused with such complexity, decision-making requires an evaluation of that action‘s legitimacy. Most often, this evaluation is implicitly made rather than expressly articulated. The purpose of this dissertation was both to illustrate the importance and utility of explicitly evaluating legitimacy and to provide a conceptual framework for understanding how the legitimacy of protected area governance and management may be understood. To better understand the concept of legitimacy, I conducted a case-study of subsistence- based resource use in Kruger National Park, South Africa. The collection of firewood, medicinal plants, thatching grass, and meat by local residents living outside Kruger has long been a contentious issue. Since the Park‘s establishment in 1926, resource use among local residents has been almost entirely prohibited. With South Africa‘s democratization in 1994, though, Kruger became a park-in-transition. In the interest of equity and benefit provision, the current management regime is exploring the possibility of providing local residents some level of access to resources in the Park. Despite these interests, providing such access to resources is by no means considered a universally legitimate action. As part of the case study, I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with local residents, Kruger staff, and Kruger visitors, as well as a survey of Kruger visitors. Analysis revealed both common and varying conceptualizations of the legitimacy of resource use in Kruger among local residents. Procedurally speaking, all three groups largely believed that a consultative (rather than a co-management) approach to deciding how and what resources might be utilized would be the most legitimate approach. Substantively speaking, resource use was legitimated and illegitimated on a variety of dimensions including the morality, pragmatism, conventionality, and rationality of resource use. This study demonstrated that legitimacy is a multi-dimensional concept that, if explicitly evaluated, provides considerable insight into the governance and management of protected areas and may reveal previously unforeseen resolutions to complex issues. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a myth to think that one undertakes a dissertation on their own. Since the first day I arrived in Missoula after moving from southern Illinois, I have been surrounded by top- notch researchers, teachers, graduate students, and staff. All have contributed to this dissertation in very important ways. Wayne Freimund, my dissertation Committee Chair and Advisor, was there at every step to offer guidance on everything from framing my research questions to organizing the final draft of my dissertation. Perhaps just as important, though, Wayne was always willing to offer professional and personal advice, and I‘m lucky to have made such a good friend along the way. Thanks, Wayne – I wouldn‘t have changed a thing! My dissertation committee – Perry Brown, Mike Patterson, Doug Dalenberg, and Karen Adams – provided extraordinary support and exceeded any expectations that I had before I began this dissertation. From independent studies to in-depth discussions of the data, they were always accommodating and anxious to help. Beyond my committee, our Department‘s faculty was always willing to assist in whatever way possible and took the extra steps to make us graduate students feel like their colleagues rather than their students. I owe special thanks, too, to all of the CFC staff, especially Shonna Trowbridge, Jodi Todd, Lynn Gruszie, Robert Logan, Gary Decker, and Sherri McWilliams who tolerated what must have seemed like an incessant stream of administrative, accounting, and computer questions. One of the strongest features of our College and Department is the collegial environment our graduate students have created. I‘ve made friends that I‘ll remember the rest of my life and received a lot of good advice from a number of graduate students – in particular, Chad Dear and Paul Lachapelle. While conducting my research, I had the good fortune to be a part of the Treehouse Research Program for People and Conservation – a working group of professors and students from the University of Montana and the Centre for Environment, Agriculture and Development at the University of KwaZulu Natal. My participation in this program allowed me to travel to southern Africa on a number of occasions. In the course of that experience, I‘ve made life-long friends that I would not have otherwise made and seen a world I would not have otherwise known. I would like to especially thank Wayne Freimund, Steve McCool, and Charles Breen for all of their guidance, advice, and making this opportunity possible. South Africa National Parks and the United States Forest Service International Programs both provided substantial support for my research. The latter being the principal funding agent for this research and the former providing technical support and much of the data I collected and analyzed. Both were indispensible to the success of this research. Nearly 400 individuals contributed data to this study through interviews or surveys. I appreciate the time they took out of their lives, their visits to Kruger, and their workday to speak with me about such an important issue. I owe a special thanks to my parents, Margaret and Stephen Tanner. Throughout my life, they‘ve taught me patience and determination, two traits that are absolutely necessary for any graduate student. Finally, no one has offered more support than my wife, Jamie (and our dog, Rogan!). Jamie and I have been together throughout the entirety of this adventure, and I could always count on her love and confidence in me. This dissertation is dedicated to her. Thank you to everyone who made this research possible, I hope the work I have put into it adequately reflects the time, energy, and encouragement you have provided me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 – Introduction: The legitimacy of protected area governance and 1 management The complex and (sometimes) conflicted nature of protected areas 3 Protected areas and legitimacy 5 Resource use in protected areas 8 The study site: Kruger National Park, South Africa 12 Research questions and objectives 16 Outline of the dissertation 17 Chapter 2 – Protected Areas and the Call for Legitimacy 21 The evolving governance and management of Kruger National Park 22 The management of Kruger National Park before democratization 23 Early protection of Kruger National Park 24 ―Management by intervention‖ in Kruger National Park 28 Towards decentralization 29 The management of Kruger after democratization 30 Protected areas as adaptive systems in South Africa 34 Protected areas and the call for legitimacy 36 Objectives and research questions for the study 40 Resource use and legitimacy 41 Conclusion 42 Chapter 3 – Conceptualizing “Legitimacy” 44 Social and behavioral conceptualizations of ―legitimacy‖ 47 Weber and “legitimacy” 47 Post-Weberian social and behavioral conceptions of legitimacy 51 iv Normative conceptualizations of ―legitimacy‖ 57 Habermas’ response to Weber 57 Contemporary normative conceptualizations of legitimacy 63 Deliberative democracy as legitimacy 64 Instrumentalism and pragmatism as legitimacy 66 Constitutionality and the law as legitimacy 68 A synthetic framework for understanding and exploring legitimacy 71 A synthetic definition of “legitimacy” 74 Normative criteria for legitimacy 76 A synthetic conceptual framework