Territoriality by Conservation in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Tanzania

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy; Lund, Jens Friis (2018). Territoriality by Conservation in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Tanzania. World development, 101, pp. 453-465. Elsevier 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.09.010

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In this paper we argue that historically emerging frontiers of conservation pave the way for continuous top–down territorialization. Drawing on a concrete case in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Southern Tanzania, we show how a frontier emerged in the form of community-based conservation. Decades of consecutive and continuous territorialization projects, based on mapping and boundary making, have ensured that conservation is beyond questioning, despite failures in the processes of demarcating, controlling, and managing this large-scale socio-spatial intervention. Although these failures produce territorial conflicts and confusions on the ground, we argue that in the context of a conservation frontier the gap between the envisioned ideal and the messy reality is used to legitimize continuous conservation interventions that rely on technical expertise rather than political dialog. While such top–down territorialization by community-based conservation inevitably remains partial and contingent, this is nonetheless a powerful and resilient project that gradually transforms communal landscapes into conservation territories with little room for public debate.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology

UniBE Contributor:

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
900 History > 910 Geography & travel

ISSN:

0305-750X

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Jevgeniy Bluwstein

Date Deposited:

06 Feb 2023 11:48

Last Modified:

06 Feb 2023 23:28

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.09.010

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/177734

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/177734

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