Browsing by Author "Leader-Williams, Nigel"

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Co-management of Contractual National Parks in South Africa: Lessons from Australia
(2004) Reid, Hannah; Fig, David; Magome, Hector; Leader-Williams, Nigel
"Contractual national parks in South Africa and Australia have been established on land owned either by the state or a group of private individuals. They are managed by the national conservation authority according to the terms of a joint management agreement drawn up by a joint management committee usually consisting of representatives from the national conservation authority and the landowners. Since majority rule in 1994, South African contractual national parks have provided a model through which the country's conservation as well as development objectives can be met, particularly where landowners are previously disadvantaged communities. Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kakadu National Parks in Australia were established on Aboriginal-owned land and have over fifteen years of experience in co-management. In view of the growing resurgence of protectionist approaches to conservation, this article assesses the success of contractual national parks in South Africa and Australia. Rather than reverting to protectionism, it seeks to build on experiences with joint management to date by analysing what lessons South Africa can learn from Australia regarding meeting the conservation, social and financial/economic objectives of its contractual national parks. Indeed, lessons learnt from both countries will be of value to all non-industrialised countries."
Consequences of Human Land Use for an Afro-alpine Ecological Community in Ethiopia
(2012) Ashenafi, Zelealem Tefera; Leader-Williams, Nigel; Coulson, Tim
"The Guassa area of Menz in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia is an Afro-alpine ecological community with an indigenous resource management system. The local community harvest different resources including collecting grass and firewood from the Guassa area. Cattle and other livestock are also grazed in the Guassa area, especially during the dry season. Several sympatric species of endemic rodents dominate the small mammal ecological communities in the Guassa area, and form most of the diet of the endangered Ethiopian wolf. This study aimed to determine if current levels of resource use by the local community through the indigenous resource management system had any discernible effect on rodent community structure. We found that the structure of the rodent community differs between habitat types, and that different species of rodents show diurnal variations in their patterns of activity. We also found that populations of different species show variable responses to each type of resource use in different habitats; some species show increases in abundance in relation to use while others show decreases. Although the indigenous resource management system was not specifically designed to conserve wildlife, it has nevertheless allowed wildlife, specifically small mammals or rodent communities, to co-exist alongside the ongoing resource use by the local community. We conclude the Guassa area represents an interesting model of community-led resource management of an Afro-alpine habitat which supports populations of endemic and threatened species."
The Resilient Nature of Common Property Resource Management Systems: A Case Study from the Guassa Area of Menz, Ethiopia
(2006) Ashenafi, Zelealem Tefera; Leader-Williams, Nigel
"Many communities world-wide face serious environmental degradation, including deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, overexploitation of biodiversity and serious air and water pollution problems, all associated with mismanagement of natural resources. However, natural resource management institutions that are based on systems of common property can often prevent many instances of mismanagement of natural resources. To this end this paper examines how a common property resource management system in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia survived various government sponsored development packages and social changes. In the district of Menz, the Guassa area, common property resource management worked under an indigenous resource management institution known us the Qero system, based on the existing Atsme Irist indigenous land tenure system. The rules of exclusion governing access to the use of the Guassa area resource were aspects of the Atsme Irist land tenure system that conferred usufruct right on the members of a group tracing their lineage back to their pioneer fathers. Furthermore, the user community was organised at parish level, an arrangement that gave the Guassa area the status of consecrated land, under protective patronage of the Christian church in Ethiopia. "Following the 1974 Socialist Revolution in Ethiopia, the then governing regime proclaimed the Agrarian Reform in 1975. All land that was in private ownership or communal tenure was transformed into the state or public land tenure system. In turn, this result in the formal ending of the Qero system in Menz. However, as further social and economic changes took place, such as land redistribution and villagisation programmes, the Guassa common property user community informally responded to these changes by forming new indigenous institutions that were in line with the new social and political order. As a result, the current Guassa resource owners have continued to manage their natural resources under a modified common property system until now. Furthermore, this system of management has been extremely important for the livelihoods of the local community, for environmental sustainability, and also for the conservation of the endemic and endangered flora and fauna of the area. The Guassa area illustrates how resilient can be true common property resource management systems when exposed to rule changes and pressure from outside forces. Instead of collapsing when the rules were changed, the existing common property resource management system evolved into a new institution that has adapted, chameleon-like, to the new political order."