Résumé
Calling on the concept of environmental justice in
its distributive, procedural, and
recognition dimensions, we implemented a collaborative
scenario-building approach to explore sustainable livelihood pathways in
four sites belonging to two Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) in
southern Africa. Grounded on participation and
transdisciplinarity, as a foundation for decolonised anticipatory action
research, we aimed at stimulating knowledge exchange and providing
insights on the future of local livelihoods by engaging experts living
within these TFCAs. Our results show that wildlife and
wildlife-related activities are not seen as the primary drivers of local
livelihoods, despite the focus and investments of dominant stakeholders in
these sectors. Instead, local governance and land use regulations emerged
as key drivers in the four study sites. The state of natural resources,
including water, and appropriate farming systems also appeared critical to
sustain future livelihoods in TFCAs, together with the recognition of
indigenous culture, knowledge, and value systems. Nature conservation,
especially in Africa, is rooted in its colonial past and struggles to free
or decolonise itself from the habits of this past despite decades of
reconsideration. To date, the enduring coloniality of conservation
prevents local citizens from truly participating in the planning and
designing of the TFCAs they live in, leaving room for limited benefits to
local citizens and often limiting indigenous people's capacity to
conserve. A practical way forward is to consider environmental
justice as a cement between the two pillars of the TFCA
concept, i.e.nature conservation and socioeconomic development of
local or neighbouring communities, as part of a more broad and urgent need
to rethink the relationships between people in, and with, the rest of
nature.