Emancipation Through Participation: A Case Study

Over the past few decades there has been a concerted effort in southern Africa forcommunity based natural resource management (CBNRM) programs. The generalpremise behind CBNRM allows local communities to be empowered to utilize theirsurrounding natural resources to facilitate socio-economic growth. This is seen as aneffective rural development tool which often takes on the form of eco-tourism inSouth Africa. It creates a link between nature conservation and socio-economicdevelopment needs and is normally built on existing conservation areas such asnational parks (Ezeuduji et al. 2017: 225).“Protected area outreach” is a form ofCBNRM (Chevallier 2016: 6), and this degree project examines how stakeholderparticipation was incorporated into the formulation of Kruger National Park’s (KNP)ten-year management plan. Using KNP’s stakeholder engagement process as anaturalistic case study, the aim is to discover the extent of participation and whethertrue empowerment is facilitated. This was done via document analysis of the 2018KNP Stakeholder Participation Report using the emancipatory approach. Thisapproach is influenced by critical, post-colonial and intersectional theory andemphasizes the attainment of social justice through the unveiling and dismantling ofinvisible oppressive power structures (Wesp et al. 2018: 319). The analysis showsthat KNP uses a systems approach to their stakeholder engagement as opposed toan empowerment one; that participation is limited to consultation and is thereforemerely a form of tokenism; that weaker marginalized stakeholder groups suffer fromsystemic exclusion and underrepresentation; and that there is little to no attentiongiven to empowerment nor structural reform to drive social change