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Abstract
This paper focuses on the resettlement process taking place in the context of the creation of the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, which is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. About 26,000 people are currently living in the park; 7000 of whom will be resettled to an area southeast of the park. The Mozambican government and donors funding the creation of the park have maintained that no forced relocation will take place. However, the pressure created by restrictions on livelihood strategies resulting from park regulations, and the increased presence of wildlife has forced some communities to ‘accept’ the resettlement option. Nevertheless, donors and park authorities present the resettlement exercise as a development project. In the article we describe how the dynamics of the regional political economy of conservation led to the adoption of a park model and instigated a resettlement process that obtained the label ‘voluntary’. We analyse the nuances of volition and the emergent contradictions in the resettlement policy process.
Acknowledgements
Jessica Milgroom would like to acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation of the United States’ Graduate Fellowship Program and the Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (NREF)-funded research programme ‘Competing claims on natural resources: Overcoming mismatches in resource use through a multiscale perspective’, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Marja Spierenburg would like to acknowledge the support of the South Africa–Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD), and the Transboundary Protected Areas Research Initiative, a programme running under the auspices of the IUCN South Africa and funded through the Center for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change, by way of a co-operative agreement with the National Science Foundation (SBR-9521914).
Notes
1. Chimangue leader, 22 September 2007.
2. The GLTP refers to the three national parks. Another commonly used name is the GLTFCA (Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park and Conservation Area) which refers to the national parks and the space between them.
3. These were carried out by the University of Witwatersrand Refugee Research Programme in Citation2002 and Rachel DeMotts in 2003–4, both courtesy of Rachel DeMotts.
4. Contrary to the Mozambican government's initial intentions as claimed by several anonymous respondents.
5. LNP authority, interview 30 April 2007.
6. Interview with KFW representative, 17 April 2008.
7. The LNP is classified as a national park of IUCN category 2. Although a national policy governing conservation areas is in the process of being developed, currently the Land Law no. 19/97 and the Forestry and Wildlife Law no. 10/99 determine the rights to land and use of natural resources.
8. LNP staff member, interview 30 April 2007.
9. KfW representative, interview 17 April 2008.
10. LNP staff member, interview 30 April 2007.
11. Note that this was after the declaration of the LNP.
12. Press statement published by the Smart News Network International,(www.bernama.com/cgi-bin/ssn2/list_item.cgi?peserta/mozambique/mo2505_2.txt, last accessed on 27 May 2005).
13. Interview in Massingir, 26 April 2007.
14. It has been argued that small-scale agricultural production is deeply distrusted by Mozambican government officials and believed to be an insufficient basis for the development (Hughes Citation2006).
15. Nanguene female resident, interview, May 2007.
16. Macavene male resident, interview, 3 June 2007.
17. Nanguene female resident, interview, May 2007.
18. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
19. IUCN report, February 2002.
20. RRP database, digitalised by Rachel DeMotts. See also (RRP 2002). The database contains interviews with 84 heads of households and 10 local government officials.
21. Makandezulo male resident, November, 2006.
22. See www.peaceparks.org, article ‘Villager relocation a win-win’, last accessed 27 June 2007.
23. Nanguene male resident, interview, May 2007.
24. Nanguene male resident, interview, 24 April 2007.
25. Interviews in Nanguene and Macavene 2006-8.
26. Interviews with various village members of Nanguene and Macavene 2006 and 2007; Leonardo, 2007.
27. Nanguene female resident, interview, April, 2007.
28. Nanguene female resident, interview, 28 February 2007.
29. LNP wildlife manager, interview November 2006.
30. Interviews in Chinhangane, Makandezulo and Machamba, October 2007.
31. Mavodze resident, interview April 2005.
32. LNP staff member, interview April 2007.
33. Interview with former park director, March 2006, and other sources.
34. Various sources, anonymous.
35. Anonymous donor representative, 17 August 2007.
36. Interviews in Macavene May and June 2007.
37. Governor's speech in Mavodze (a village along the Shingwedzi River), 23 May 2007.
38. Macavene male resident, interview 16 May 2007.
39. Community meeting, Massingir 14 March 2007.
40. LNP staff member, interview 31 July 2007.
41. LNP staff member, September 2007.
42. LNP staff member, interview 30 April 2007.