Can the subaltern speak? Contradictions in trophy hunting and wildlife conservation trajectory in Botswana

Fall from grace or back down to earth? Conservation and political conflict in Africa’s “miracle” state

“…Largely missing from the international backlash to the hunting ban's end was any notion that Batswana should have a say in the matter. Comparatively little reference was made to the irregular manner of the ban's implementation under Khama, the specific impacts of the ban on CBNRM, or the fact that the rollback of the ban was made after a lengthy period of consultation with local people (Mbaiwa and Hambira, 2021).…”

“…All of this made him a compelling figure, particularly for audiences in the Global North (often in travel journalism or wildlife films), and especially when he stood out as heterodox compared to his regional neighbours, as when he reversed Botswana's longstanding positions regarding hunting and the ivory trade (Christ, 2016; Cropley, 2016). However, the very aspects that made him an appealing avatar of African conservation abroad generated resentments and critiques at home, particularly when his robust pursuit of his conservation agenda clashed with longstanding norms around consultation and citizen consent in policymaking (Good, 2010; LaRocco, 2016; Mbaiwa, 2017; Mbaiwa and Hambira, 2021).…”

“…International diplomacy, conservation awards, and rave reviews in glossy travel magazines all contributed to the global perception of Botswana as an environmental “African miracle.” Many of these green plaudits are associated with the tenure of former president Ian Khama (2008–2018). However, the international praise belied underlying discontentment at home, both with Khama's leadership style and policymaking related to the environment, with those policies rendering Botswana a stand out often disrupting the citizen-state relations of those living in conservation areas (Mbaiwa and Hambira, 2021; Mogende and Ramutsindela, 2020; Rihoy and Maguranyanga, 2010).…”

Conservation Science and Discursive Violence: A Response to Two Rejoinders

“…The authors do not specify, either in their paper or in their survey, what these concerns are, leaving the reader in limbo about what exactly is under consideration here. Complex patterns of local support for trophy hunting exist in CBNRM contexts (Mbaiwa and Hambira 2021;Hewitson and Sullivan 2021) and we are not ourselves necessarily opposed to hunting practices. What we are discussing is how so-called "Western 7 Naidoo and Johnson (2013) does not match the first variable (is not about trophy hunting or ecotourism) nor the second; Riehl, Zerriffi, and Naidoo (2015) does not match the second variable; Naidoo et al (2018) largely matches the second variable but is about a different topic (namely wildlife corridors).…”

Toward a pluralistic conservation science

“…Conservation failures still occur because of outdated approaches, such as imposing top‐down change on local communities, ignoring power imbalances, or being insensitive to histories of land ownership. Some recent examples include the naïve creation of marine protected areas that negatively impact the livelihoods of small‐scale fishers (Ban et al., 2019; Bennett et al., 2017; Chuenpagdee et al., 2013); the complex tangle of imposed and polarized western values relating to safari hunting in Africa (discussed in Dickman et al., 2019; Mbaiwa & Hambira, 2021); the involvement of global conservation NGOs in the displacement and harassment of Indigenous people to make way for “wilderness” protected areas (Ramutsindela et al., 2022); and community forestry initiatives that impose conservation measures over local rights to natural resources (Hajjar et al., 2021; Sigman, 2022).…”