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Contents:

1 - Introduction; 2 - Growth of modern nature conservation in Southern Africa; 3 - Private land contribution to conservation in South Africa; 4 - Community-based natural resource management; 5 - Performance of parks in a century of change; 6 - Park agencies, performance and society in Southern Africa; 7 - Innovations in park management; 8 - Does 'commercialisation' of protected areas threaten their conservation goals?; 9 - Who and what are parks for in transitional societies?; 10 - Parks in transition: biodiversity, development and the bottom line.

Review:

There was a time when conservation in national parks was seen as the main way forward. Today, such a view can no longer be held. It's wrong historically because of the range of conservation efforts spreading over hundreds if not thousands of years. It's wrong conceptually because it pre-supposed we know exactly what is meant by conservation. Finally, it's wrong because new information comes to light making conservation a far more problematic issue. This book helps to focus on all of these issues. It started as one aspect of the World Parks Congress in 2003 - a chance to share with other conservationists the lessons gleaned from work in Southern Africa.

The central message is one of diversity. Chapter one starts out as a historical reflection of parks generally and Southern African parks in particular. It outlines the changes from parks-as-conservation to parks-for-non-affluent people. In other words, parks are not to be sterile places but part of the surrounding economy. This has not just grown up easily. As chapter two tells us there has been a great deal of work getting to this stage. In another historical overview the contributor outlines conservation from the earliest times (pre-colonial) through to colonial times and beyond WW2 when there were arguments between various land users. Towards the end of this chapter and through chapter three we are reminded that it is the private sector that has had the most recent influence. Much of the modern conservation work is outside the parks and uses private land. Much of this in the 1960s/70s involved the use of wildlife as a product e.g. meat, hunting etc. Should it be thought that it's just a question of ownership then the final aspect noted is that of racial equality in this once-divided land. A different focus is taken in chapter four which looks at the other end of the spectrum - community conservation. There have been benefits but there are also problems of politics and governance to deal with. Conservation is no good unless it produces some measurable good. In chapter five, parks are subjected to analysis in terms of their ecological and socioeconomic values. This is no easy matter because not only are the data difficult to gather, conceptually there are no easy answers. At this stage there is one obvious element to be drawn out - that management is a key issue. To tackle this chapters 6-8 deal with management from a range of perspectives. In 6 we see that parks gain bureaucracy and start to under perform. The concepts mentioned here are taken in chapter 7 to consider new forms of agreements between state, local and private operators whilst in chapter 8 commercialisation of parks is discussed. It's clear from the case studies that it can work but it's equally clear that it requires good management skills and that these are not always available. The final two chapters argue two linked cases: the former that society across the region is changing and that local management seems the best option in response to this and the latter that we need to consider what parks are really for before we put any new plans into effect.

This is a very interesting text. Southern Africa has produced a number of innovative ideas in conservation and this text is no exception. By using a mixture of case study and theory the resultant work is stronger for it: these people have seen both sides and can work out which future might succeed. It's probably too specialised for school use (but an excellent higher education reader) but many of the ideas raised would be of great use to educators.