Nurturing Seeds of Association:
Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at
Masoala National Park, Madagascar
Focus on Ch IV:
Civil Society and Masoala National Park
Kate Mannle
Bates College
Lewiston, ME USA
For the TBPARI Teleseminar Series
12 May, 2004
Masoala National Park, Madagascar
Masoala National Park
Source: (Ormsby 2003)
Habitat Types of the Masoala Peninsula
Source: (Rubel et al 2003)
Social and Political Factors to Understanding
Madagascar and the Masoala Region
Madagascar
► urban/rural divide
►
►
►
national motto “Unity
Amongst Diversity”
Masoala Region
► domination of
Betsimisaraka by Merina
ethnic group
►
2001-2002 political and
economic crisis
►
Violence, mass arrests,
and kidnapping in northern
and eastern provinces
during the crisis have
created mistrust, fear, and
silencing of political views
deeply felt but unspoken
ethnic/regional divide
influences of British and
French colonialism
Primary Research Question
Can democracy and conservation reinforce each other?
• Would the park management’s use of participatory
methods of conservation make it a more legitimate and
possibly more successful as a means of conservation?
• Should conservation be used as a tool to promote
democratization?
• Is democracy beneficial to biodiversity conservation
and is it necessary for biodiversity conservation?
What roles do international and local civil
society play at Masoala National Park?
• International Civil Society
•
•
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
CARE International
• Local Civil Society
•
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Association
National pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées (ANGAP)
• The dina
•
Park related associations
• Association des Guides Ecotouristique du Masoala (AGEM)
(Ecotourism Guides Association of Masoala)
Methods
►
Semester spent in Madagascar, Spring 2003 including month long
independent study on ecotourism at Masoala National Park.
►
Interviews with park managers, employees, park guides, porters,
cultivators, hotel and restaurant owners and local residents in
individual and group formats
►
Participant observation used to record the actions and roles of various
actors in and around the park
►
Gray literature such as brochures and park management plans
collected in Madagascar
►
Archival research conducted in Madagascar and the U.S.
►
Interviews with WCS personnel in New York
What is Civil Society?
► “The
realm of organized social life standing
between individuals and political institutions of
representation.” (Hyden, 1998)
► Transnational
(NGOs)
non-government organizations
(Wapner, 1995)
 “disseminating an ecological sensibility”
 Help transform national policies and global agreements
► Civil
society promotes democracy by creating an
environment for people to learn and practice
democratic behavior (Marcus, 2000).
International Civil Society
►
The Wildlife Conservation Society
 Participates in international environmental regimes, disseminates a
“particular ecological sensibility”
 Integral to national environmental policy formation in Madagascar
 Acts on behalf of Masoala region
►
WCS policies and practices at Masoala
 Focus on financial assistance, technical advising and scientific
research
 Conservation ethic reflects protectionist argument as defined by
Wilshusen et al (2002).
 Currently lacking a partner organization for development at
Masoala
Madagascar Government institutions
► Association National pour
la Gestion des Aires
Protégées (ANGAP)
 Responsible for park outreach to local communities
at Masoala
 COGES program limitations
 Park enforcement limitations
Local Civil Society
► Local
civil society in
the Masoala region is
generally weak (Marcus,
2000)
► AGEM
and other park
related organizations
starting to emerge
► Important
link
between local people
and park
► De
facto park management is somewhere
between a modified version of fortress
conservation and a limited protected-area
outreach program as defined by Hulme and
Murphee (2001).
► Legitimacy
of current conservation strategy
given political and social situation? (Wilshusen et
al, 2002).
Conclusions about Civil Society at Masoala
National Park
► Local,
park related civil society such as AGEM has
the ability to teach democratic values, encourage
other local civil society, and develop its own nonWestern conservation ethic
► Through
the encouragement of local civil society
associated with the park, international civil society
can reinforce both democracy and conservation at
Masoala National Park
Possible Lessons
► Danger
of dependency
► International
status quo?
civil society just reinforcing the
(Chatterjee and Finger, 1994)
► Possibilities
for forming other independent guides
associations in Madagascar?
► Further
research on park related civil society at
other protected areas with attention to specific
social and political dynamics
References and Acknowledgements
Chatterjee, P., & Finger, M. (1994). The earth brokers: Power, politics, and world development. New York: Routledge.
Hulme, D., & Murphee, M. (2001). Community conservation in Africa. In D. Hulme & M. Murphee (Eds.), African wildlife and
livelihoods: The promise and performance of community conservation. Pourtsmouth: Routledge.
Hyden, G. (1998). Building civil society at the turn of the millennium. In J. Burbidge (Ed.), Beyond prince and merchant:
Citizen participation and the rise of civil society. New York: Pact Publications.
Marcus, R. R. (2000). Cultivating democracy on fragile grounds: Environmental institutions and non-elite perceptions of
democracy in Madagascar and Uganda. University of Florida.
Ormsby, A. A., & Mannle, K. O. (2003). Ecotourism opportunities and challenges at Masoala National Park, Madagascar.
(Forthcoming).
Rubel, A., Hatchwell, M., MacKinnon, J., & Ketterer, P. (2003). Masoala-The eye of the forest: A new
strategy for rainforest conservation in Madagascar. Zurich: Zoo Zurich Th. Gut Verlag.
Wapner, P. (1995). Politics beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics. World Politics, 47(April), 311340.
Wilshusen, P. R., Brechin, S. R., Fortwangler, C. L., & West, P. C. (2002). Reinventing a square wheel: Critique of a
resurgent "protection paradigm" in international biodiversity conservation. Society and Natural Resources., 15, 17-40.
Thank you to WCS, ANGAP and AGEM, Peter Rogers, and The TransBoundary Protected Areas Research Initiative
Misoatra-ô!