Mailing address:

Protected area management in Southern Africa is being influenced by a globalization of conservation as the Western-driven transboundary conservation movement seeks to enlarge protected areas across international borders. The ensuing resource conflict is the result of an epistemological disparity between conservation and rural livelihoods. This impacts local access to natural, social, and economic resources threatening livelihoods and the sustainability of conservation areas dependent on local popular support and legitimization. The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (Peace Park) and neighboring communities are examined using Community-integrated Geographic Information Systems as an interdisciplinary multiple-scale approach to contextualize local resource decisions within the global conservation framework