Transboundary areas in Southern Africa: meeting the needs of conservation or development?

Southern Africa’s natural resource management areas are becoming ‘transboundary’. Terminology is becoming both complex and confusing yet conservation-dominant. Transboundary conservation areas, transfrontier conservation areas and peace parks have all been packaged within global environmental rhetoric and as such few benefits have accrued towards community development and rural livelihood empowerment.The paper questions the long-term sustainable viability of ‘transboundary’ conservation management and action plans. The paper raises the question that sustainable transboundary management of natural resources has become too ‘conservation’ based and not developmental.Alarming evidence has emerged from a recent University of Witswatersrand Refugee Research Programme document entitled “A Park for the People?” that clearly demonstrates government, institutions and stakeholders involved in transboundary initiatives are bulldozing communities through the process in the name of conservation. To that end communities are confused due to a lack of consultation and involvement in the management and action plans. What can be concluded from the report is the creation of a conservation hinterland, incorporating a habitual exclusion zone.The paper suggests a new framework and policy approach for effective co-management and harmonisation. Transboundary Development Area’s (TBDA) defined as areas that “manage the use of all natural resources to meet the needs of all development”. TBDA’s incorporate the management practices of conservation areas but suggest that they have segregated state owned ‘single-species’ management plans outside of appropriate natural resource management techniques and strategies. Nevertheless, in order for transboundary conservation areas to work, three principles of democracy, sustainability and efficiency are suggested, whereby the community owns the means of production, creating a systemised process that is accountable and transparent, decentralised and developmental, all-inclusive from any dominant agenda, combining to strengthen, secure and promote long-term ‘sustainable’ community-livelihoods. [Author]