Nurturing Seeds of Association: Democracy and Conservation through Civil Society at Masoala National Park, Madagascar

1. 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

2. Masoala National Park, Madagascar Masoala National Park Habitat Types of the Masoala Peninsula Source: (Ormsby 2003) Source: (Rubel et al 2003)

3. Madagascar urban/rural divide national motto “Unity Amongst Diversity” deeply felt but unspoken ethnic/regional divide influences of British and French colonialism 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 Social and Political Factors to Understanding Madagascar and the Masoala Region

4. 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?

5. 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)

6. 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

7. What is Civil Society? • “The realm of organized social life standing between individuals and political institutions of representation.” (Hyden, 1998) • Transnational non-government organizations (NGOs) (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).

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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).

12. 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 non-Western 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

13. Possible Lessons • Danger of dependency • International civil society just reinforcing the status quo? (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

14. 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), 311-340. 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 Trans-Boundary Protected Areas Research Initiative

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