“They Call It Shangri-La”: Sustainable Conservation, or African Enclosures?

Abstract

A central anthropological contribution to exploring and developing concepts of sustainability resides in the local voices anthropology makes heard, especially those commonly not registered or simply disregarded by national and global decision-makers. I develop this with respect to the particular comparative case study of community conservation in East African rangelands. Among other social and ecological outcomes of these interventions, I explore the enclosures that conservation interventions—and the opposite but unequal force of extractive industries—are bringing about in these former commons. In doing so, this chapter highlights both specific and also widely generalisable implications for conflicting local and global notions of social and ecological sustainability. It touches on the resonance of the rapid proliferation of African enclosures both with the historical roots of social theory, and also with the present march of globalisation, topics addressed in greater theoretical depth by other contributors. Finally, this case illustrates how broad-based anthropology may engage and integrate in interdisciplinary ways with other social, political, behavioural and natural sciences to shift societal and decision-makers’ thinking.