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Market–community collaborative wildlife management in Malawi: subjectivities and shifting configurations of protests and celebrations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Sane Pashane Zuka*
Affiliation:
School of Built Environment, Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, Chichiri, Blantyre, Malawi
Brenda Kanyika Zuka
Affiliation:
Department of Development Studies, Catholic University of Malawi, Limbe, Malawi
*
Corresponding author: Sane Pashane Zuka; Email: spzuka@gmail.com
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Summary

Although wildlife management models across the world have since the early 1980s shifted from top-down fortress conservation to different labels of people-friendly community-based conservation, their outcomes remain contested. This paper explores how, and in whose interests, approaches to wildlife conservation in Malawi have been reconfigured from fortress conservation to market–community collaborative management. Based on qualitative field data, we demonstrate how varying levels of community participation in the processes of wildlife conservation transformed the identities and interests of powerful groups of people regarding wildlife conservation in the Majete Wildlife Reserve. We highlight how commodification and monetarization of wildlife conservation served the interests of the emergent powerful groups whilst marginalizing those of the weak. The work indicates how new community identities with regard to wildlife conservation mask the power hegemonies that dictate mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion regarding natural resource use.

Information

Type
Research Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Foundation for Environmental Conservation
Figure 0

Table 1. Views of respondents on wildlife management structures at Majete Wildlife Reserve (MWR).

Figure 1

Table 2. Views of communities on outcomes of collaborative wildlife management at Majete Wildlife Reserve (MWR).