1. Caro Stamm
Lecturer ◊ Best-Sabel University of Applied Sciences Berlin
PhD candidate ◊ University of Lincoln

2. Photo by Dan Stephens

3. Photo by macleans.ca

5.  The three premises of „New Conservation‟ (Hulme & Murphree 1999)
• Decentralisation
 Conservation should move from being state-centric to being more based in
society
 Conservation rooted at the local level: empowerment and ownership
• Sustainable development
 Both conservation and development goals at the same time NOT
“environmental imperialism”
 Two extremes: Sustainable utilization vs. biodiversity fundamentalists
• Free market thinking
 Uniqueness and scarcity of species will lead to high economic values being
placed on them  likelihood of conservation greatly improved

6. Resources CBO
Cultural (people) Accountable
Natural (e.g. elephants) and legal entity
Com m unity
use benefits for
wider development goals
Governm ent
CBNRM policy
Donors
Development funds for
tourism as livelihood option
Private Sector
Joint Venture
Partnerships
Bilateral Agreement
NGO
NGOs
1. Play essential role in formulation of
CBNRM policy, i.e. vesting of rights
2. Facilitate drafting of constitution spelling
out rights of community and responsibilities
of committee
3. Act as advisor to the community during JV
negotiations with PS

7.  Strengths
• Have experience in working with local communities
• Can develop capacity at community level
• Have information about and access to specific market segments
• Advise communities during negotiations with private sector
• Lobby for more responsible tourism and interests of local communities
• Are able to identify and develop alternative livelihood options
• May have capacity to strengthen the role of disadvantaged groups
 and weaknesses
• Lack sufficient business and marketing skills
• Lack professionalism in developing tourism products
• May offer only limited support due to dependence on external funding
• Values may conflict with commercial viability of CBT ventures
• Interests of NGOs and local communities may conflict

8.  49 semi-structured interviews in
four southern African countries
• NGOs 41%
• Academics 20%
• Private Sector 16%
• Government 15%
• Community 8%
 Data analysis by means of
• Position analysis
• Agency analysis
 Development of heuristics
• Ambivalence and inconsistency
• Self-narratives and own theories
• „C-families‟: causes, consequences and
conditions
• Gradual families: degree, intensity and
scope
• Process families: stages, phases and
progression

9.  Powerful!
• Withhold participation
 Overtly, e.g. boycotting meetings
 Covertly, e.g. apathy, lack of enthusiasm
• Bargaining powers
 Learnt to tell us what we want to hear
 Sophisticated consumers of development
projects
Passive receivers Comparing support
organisations
of development aid based on highest perceived
value
(Self-)constructed Apparent incapability
as
discourse of dependency actual strategy of „lying low‟
Lack of interest „Wait and see‟ mentality due
to
experiences with outsider
intervention
 Powerless?
• Passive
 Incapability of taking initiative
 No local leadership
• Disorganised
 Inability to plan ahead
 Limited understanding of their own
responsibilities
„Unwilling‟ „By
choice‟

10.  Success
• Conceptual gap between implementers‟ and receivers‟ expectations and understanding of e.g.
benefits (example education)
• Monitoring and evaluation of CBT projects are weak, e.g. quantifying community benefits
• Redefining „a good partnership‟, e.g. need to recognise communities as credible partners and
no longer as „trouble‟
 Participation
• Misconception that community members will automatically support CBNRM/ CBT initiatives
(collective vs. individual benefit)
• Opportunity cost, i.e. the high cost of participation
• Tourism favours already existing elites
 Dependence
• Skills needed locally to meet Western style accounting and administration requirements
• Ambivalence of promoting self-reliance and full community empowerment vs. losing control 
working themselves out of a job
• Disengagement strategies essentially need to be centred on the development agents
• The higher the level of local ownership the more support is needed

11. Dependency
Can heavily
expert/expat
led projects be
sustainable?
Sustainability
What constitutes a
successful CBT
project (and for
whom)?
Participation
Is active community
participation
a deal breaker?