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Summer 1999 Sustainable Development Fieldcourse: Africa: Wildlife, Ecotourism, & Sustainable Development Course Focus |
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Summer 1999 Sustainable Development Fieldcourse: Africa: Wildlife, Ecotourism, & Sustainable Development Course Focus |
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Zimbabwe is the location of the world’s premier "community-based conservation" program: CAMPFIRE (Communal Area Management Program for Indigenous Resources). It was also the June, 1997 host to the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) Meeting in Harare which broke new and controversial ground by establishing criteria for a careful down-listing of the elephant in southern Africa. This nation is at the forefront of conservation efforts for wildlife and indigenous resources, building upon a paradigm of "community-based conservation" to assure that nature is nurtured while the needs of people are paramount. Both can and must live in harmony if Zimbabwe is to achieve sustainable development.
This course will introduce students to both theory and practice in wildlife management, community-based conservation, and sustainable development. Literature on issues of African economic development, sustainable development as a paradigm for ecologically sensitive economic development, wildlife and natural preservation concepts and conditions, and the multilateral arena for nations solving nature vs. human conflicts forms the foundation for student understanding.
Field visits and talks with officials bring first-hand experience and "real-worldness" to the focus of the course. Zimbabwe in many ways exemplifies a sound approach to wildlife management that is not in conflict with economic development and preservation of natural resources. The unfolding experiments with loosening CITES treatment of elephants focuses the world’s attention on this experiment in more flexible wildlife management. The design and operation of CAMPFIRE presents students with access to innovative tools for conservation married to economic development. Fieldwork in this course will take place near Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe as well as other parts of the nation. This area is marginal for growing crops and even for cattle ranching, but the abundant wildlife are a major economic resource, generating income mainly through wildlife viewing tourism and sport hunting. Wildlife generate income not only in the national park but also on adjoining lands managed by the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission, on large white-owned ranch lands, and on communal lands occupied by subsistence farmers. Some income is also earned from other natural resources here, including timber, woodcarving and other craft production by villagers, and crocodile "ranching." The complex ecological and social setting of the Hwange area provides a rich opportunity for exploring intercultural issues. Understanding wildlife conservation here requires exploring not only ecological and economic issues, but such topics as the history of the creation of the national park during the colonial era, the Zimbabwean War of Liberation, current land and resource tenure in Zimbabwe, and the religious and spiritual views about wildlife and nature held by the ethnic groups residing in the area. This complexity will provide students with an appreciation of the importance of addressing not only ecological and economic issues in wildlife conservation, but intercultural issues as well."
The course will involve focused reading, intensive field visits, individual student journal writing, and development of student recommendations for appropriate wildlife and natural resource management within a sustainable development context.