African community-based conservancies: Innovative governance for whom?

Abstract

Community-based conservancies (CBCs) are growing in numbers throughout Africa, particularly in the arid and semi-arid (ASAL) regions where pastoralists raise livestock and live among much of Africa’s remaining wildlife. CBCs emerge around national parks and other protected areas of wildlife spaces apart from people. Community conservancies, in contrast, are land tenure and land use governance arrangements to conserve wildlife while providing for the livelihoods of African pastoralists. Some conservancies are developed by communities in partnership with public agencies, while others are associated with nongovernment organizations and/or the private sector. Others are more top-down in origin, supported by large international donors and governments. Conservancies tend to develop in nation states that, until recently, have ignored the ASALs. Currently, however, ASALs are converting to towns and croplands as human populations and consumption grow. Shifting market incentives encourage different livestock strategies away from local production to commercial livestock products. Energy extraction and renewable energy production are expanding into these areas, transforming landscapes, communities and rural cultures. Formerly communal rangelands are increasingly privatizing and subdividing as pastoralists permanently settle. Fragmentation of communal lands is the result. We assess the goals of formation of community-based conservancies, their partnerships and outcomes for pastoralists.