Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-based Conservation

Ecology, Dec, 1995 by Susanna Hecht

The clear weight of this volume lies in its case study material, which while somewhat uneven, shows the political complexity and the fragility of community management, and how depressingly easy it is for very worthy projects to be sidetracked. It also reveals the uneasy relation between international environmental concerns, regional politics, and local interests. The depth of local experience, clearly the forte of the participants, sometimes gives the volume a parochial feel, which somehow the generally very good thematic chapters do not overcome. It is the lack of sophistication in the social sciences which is the volume's central weakness, and this is a pity, because the flowering of writings on such themes could add breadth and relate local outcomes to broader processes and illuminate a range of political dynamics and power relations more clearly. The complex question of the role of the national states and regional development history is implicit in many of the cases, but never really clearly focused. Because state policies and regional economic integration, as well as global economic pressures, can be quite influential in triggering the crises that often lead to the emergence of the social movements that underlie local conservation initiatives, this is a real deficiency. Were this volume used as a text (and it certainly would be handy for more advanced development/conservation classrooms), one would have to provide generous grounding in these literatures.

These issues aside, the volume makes a useful contribution to the broader analysis of community management for conservation, and through its case studies, reveals that what has become a cliched conservation recommendation - "community management" - is a good deal more complex than anticipated. The range of issues from patronage to sabotage to the evolution of novel property regimes that emerge from the new localist emphasis is presented. Some of the studies are simply expositions of the projects of environmental groups (such as the BOCOSA project of the World Wildlife Fund in Costa Rica) and have a bit the feel of public relations. Others, such as Western's description of the ups and downs of conservation enterprise in Amboseli Park give a good sense of what a complex and often frustrating process implementation can be.

I was worried that this volume might be a set of conservation fables, and was pleased that many of the cases were a good deal more nuanced than I expected. What the volume clearly shows is that we are a long way from anything resembling "sustainable" community conservation, which is the outcome of achingly contingent dynamics. But one must begin somewhere, and this volume in its preliminary mapping of these processes at least helps identify a few of the dragons.

SUSANNA HECHT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA School of Public Policy Los Angeles, California 90095