Following Elephants: Assembling Nature Knowledge, Values and Conservation Spaces in Namibia’s Zambezi Region Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Leicester Lee John Hewitson, MRes Department of Geography 2018 Following Elephants: Assembling Nature Knowledge, Values and Conservation Spaces in Namibia’s Zambezi Region Lee John Hewitson Abstract This thesis aims to explore the production of nature knowledges and values in the context of Namibian Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). In that respect, it is a response to calls for in-depth research into the lived experience of CBNRM, and this study attends to those situated knowledges and values crucial to the programme’s success. It does so by adopting a case study approach in Kwandu Conservancy, in Namibia’s Zambezi Region. The conceptual approach embraces the collaborative potential between political ecology studies that have critiqued dominant constructions of (neoliberal) natures, and posthuman approaches adopting a more expansive view of socio- natures. As part of a ‘more than-human ethnography’, this involves ‘following’ African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in order to trace their relational connections with other (non)humans as they assemble space. Through these affective interactions relational knowledges and values are produced. These nature-culture ontologies do not inhere in elephants or other ‘things’, but are processual and formed in open-ended encounters between (non)humans. Relational interactions between humans, elephants and other lively things (de)territorialise topographical space and (de)stabilise neoliberal governmentalities. The study therefore emphasises the role of agentic nonhumans in (re)assembling CBNRM spaces that are contingent and fractious, offering hope to political ecologists seeking to challenge capitalist nature-culture framings. Relatedly, the fluid, multiple, and provisional socio-natures assembled also necessitate a re-thinking of conservation policy and practice. As such, the study recommends CBNRM practitioners embrace this generative ontology, nurturing the open-ended relational values that humans and nonhumans produce together in order to assemble more equitable and ecologically healthy socio-natural futures. i Acknowledgments At the University of Leicester I would like to extend special thanks Dr Caroline Upton and Professor Clare Madge, both of whom have provided excellent supervisory support throughout the course of this project. In Namibia, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the residents of Kwandu Conservancy for welcoming me into their community. In particular, I thank all those who participated in the study and spared the time to talk with me. For providing me with vital contacts in the field and sharing their insights into Namibian conservation, I would like to give special thanks to Karine Nuulimba, Carol Murphy and John Hazam. I am also extremely grateful to Jamy, Dwight, Leo and Jackie for allowing me to join them on the elephant trail. Without doubt, this project would not have been completed without the love, moral support and assistance of family and friends. My Mam and Nanna deserve special mention for providing me with space to write when times were tough, and it is to them both that I dedicate this work. ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................................III LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF PLATES .................................................................................................................... XII ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................................ XIV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 1.1 Research Context: Namibia, CBNRM and Elephants .......................................... 1 1.1.1 CBNRM ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 CBNRM in Namibia ............................................................................................ 2 1.1.3 Elephants .............................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Aims, Objectives and Research Questions ........................................................... 11 1.3 Thesis Structure ...................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL APPROACH .................. 15 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 15 2.2 CBNRM and Landscape Conservation................................................................. 17 2.2.1 Critiquing CBNRM ............................................................................................ 17 2.2.2 Ecosystem and Landscape Connectivity ............................................................ 21 2.3 Theorising Socio-Natures: Political Ecology, the Production of Nature, and Neoliberal Conservation ............................................................................................... 23 2.3.1 Political Ecology – Challenging the Nature/Society Binary .............................. 23 2.3.2 Neoliberal Conservation and the Value of Nature ............................................. 26 2.4 Relational and ‘More-Than-Human’ Socio-Natures ........................................... 32 iii 2.4.1 Non-Representation and Practice ....................................................................... 32 2.4.2 Emotional and Affectual Socio-Natures ............................................................ 32 2.4.3 Re-materialising Socio-Natures: Actor-Network Theory and Hybridity ........... 35 2.4.4 Assemblages ....................................................................................................... 37 2.4.5 Animal(s’) Geographies – Wildlife Topologies and Lively Biogeographies .... 40 2.4.6 Relational Knowledge, Value and Culturenature Ontologies ............................ 42 2.4.7 Multi-Natural Conservation ............................................................................... 44 2.5 Towards ‘More-Than-Representational’ Socio-Natures: Following Assembled Things ............................................................................................................................. 46 2.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 51 3.1 Conservation Contexts ........................................................................................... 51 3.1.1 Namibia .............................................................................................................. 51 3.1.2 Zambezi Region: An Accident of Colonial Geography ..................................... 54 3.1.3 Kwandu Conservancy ........................................................................................ 58 3.2 Assemblage as Methodological Framework ......................................................... 60 3.3 Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 60 3.3.1 Ethnography and Participant Observation ......................................................... 60 3.3.2 Following the Thing ........................................................................................... 61 3.3.3 Interviews ........................................................................................................... 64 3.3.4 Secondary Data .................................................................................................. 65 3.4 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 65 3.5 Assembling the Field: Research(er) Ethics, Challenges, and Positionality ....... 68 3.6 Research Limitations .............................................................................................. 71 3.6.1 Situated Knowledge ........................................................................................... 71 3.6.2 Short-Term Ethnography? .................................................................................. 71 3.6.3 Solely Qualitative ............................................................................................... 72 3.6.4 Translation Issues ............................................................................................... 72 3.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 4: CO-PRODUCING ELEPHANT KNOWLEDGE – SPATIAL AND CONCEPTUAL TERRITORIALISATION ..........................................................................