Understanding the Relationships between Protected Area Management and Local Communities

Considerable discussion in the literature investigates the impacts of protected area establishment on local communities. Rarely is there unanimity of perspectives among all the varied stakeholders towards the management... [ view full abstract ]

Considerable discussion in the literature investigates the impacts of protected area establishment on local communities. Rarely is there unanimity of perspectives among all the varied stakeholders towards the management approaches and achievement of community benefits from conservation.  Significant conflict can result and can negatively affect the relationship between protected area managers and local communities for years.  Understanding the nature of the relationship between these key stakeholders and the factors and processes that create and influence that relationship is critical to making conservation and local livelihood goals more compatible, beneficial and sustainable in the long term.    Many authors have explored these concepts including Mutanga et al [2015, 2016, 2017] who provided a series of articles related to case studies in Zimbabwe and proposed a framework based on a meta-synthesis of literature globally.  This paper explores the contributions of the previous work on this topic through reflection on a case study of the relatively new Saadani National Park in Tanzania established in 2005. In this situation local community displacement, boundary disagreements, unmet expectations and poor engagement processes have strained relations for over a decade.  Recent efforts to implement an open communications process to discuss issues have helped to improve the relationship.  This case study adds new insights to the assessment of influencing factors and their importance to the mutual benefit goals of protected area establishment.  It also proposes an amended theoretical framework of relationship influences and linkages to that advanced by Mutanga et al [2015].