Bringing the tracker-guards back in: Arms-carrying markets and quests for status in conservation at war

Abstract

Scholarly attention to the militarization of conservation efforts globally is now being further explored through attention to the specific dynamics around “green militarization” in places where violent conflict is endemic, as in this special issue. Scholars have tracked the governance and economic effects of these developments. In this paper we look at a different level of political effect, namely that of individual tracker-guards as they navigate their careers in arms-carrying work. Existing research on tracker-guards focuses on them in their capacity as anti-poachers and looks at one site only. In contrast, we take a biographical, historical, and regional approach to show how anti-poaching jobs play into broader markets for arms-carrying work and the ways that men navigate them in search of social status and employment stability. The paper spans two adjacent but nationally distinct sites: eastern Chad (primarily in and around Zakouma National Park) and northeastern Central African Republic (primarily in and around Bamingui-Bangoran and Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Parks). Focusing on the lives of three tracker-guards, we show that even within the same region the status and relational opportunities associated with anti-poaching vary depending on wider contexts encompassing evolving demands for skilled men in arms, and as a result so do the trajectories of people trying to make their way professionally in these realms. This finding demonstrates the usefulness of understanding the personal politics (social and relational factors and what counts as success) into which anti-poaching work plays.