David O'Byrne
Researcher
The Best Laid Plans: Using the Capability Approach to Assess Neoliberal Conservation in South Africa-The Case of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Author
Summary, in English
The article documents the case of South Africa's struggle to reconcile racially based poverty, a legacy of apartheid, and attempts to conserve the country's unique and important biodiversity. We present an analysis of KwaDapha, a small village in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal, a protected area and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in terms of the capability approach. Despite South Africa's strong human rights orientation, we show that the freedom, or agency, of local users and inhabitants to achieve doings and beings according to their own values and norms, is constrained by state-led conservation management at KwaDapha. We suggest that the intellectual cause of this failure might lie in the conflation of two distinct concepts: human rights and the capability approach, in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park's predominantly market-based operationalization of sustainable development.
Department/s
- LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
Publishing year
2015
Language
English
Pages
395-417
Publication/Series
The Journal of Environment & Development
Volume
24
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
- Social Anthropology
Keywords
- agency
- Africa
- South
- market-based conservation
- human rights
- the capability approach
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1552-5465