This report presents the fmdings of an exploratory study into the perceived benefits and subjective experiences of Local Bird Guides along the Zululand Birding Route, an avitourism project, sponsored by Rio-Tinto, managed by BirdLife South Africa (BLSA), one of the largest conservation Non-Governmental Organisations in South Africa. The report explores the impact development and empowerment, through training, offered by BLSA as part of a conservation initiative, has had on the every day lives of Local Bird Guides. The fmdings are based on research generated by conducting qualitative, semistructured interviews with eight Local Bird Guides operating along the Zululand Birding Route. Recorded interviews were transcribed, and analysed using theory led thematic analysis. The results of the study provide insight into the perceived benefits and expectations of participants, their experiences, perceptions, expectations and disappointments in respect of the project. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

National Parks bear greater implications than simply preserving or conserving pockets of landscape. They evoke values of conservation versus development, livelihood economics, environmental stewardship and personal enrichment; they fulfil positions in relation to the national and the international stage. Social characteristics are revealed though this comparative study of Banff National Park and the Cairngorms National Park. Perceptions of space, place and boundaries crucially imply different meanings to the people living inside the national park boundaries and those living outside the boundaries. 'Insiders' are long-term permanent residents for whom being in the park is a practical activity; 'outsiders' include scientists, conservationists, bureaucrats, and tourists, who take various ideological positions regarding the park's purpose. Both sides take a serious interest in the park and how it is managed and regard it as a place where they are 'at home'. Groups within these spaces considers their values and rights superior to others and conflict often arises. Non-violent means of gaining power as theorized by Foucault and Bourdieu, employing knowledge and discourse, are highly suggestive in the study of national parks. Discourse of nature is strategically significant as it influences purpose and policy that drive government's decisions on how the park will be managed - in this way discourse shapes the culture of how we use nature. Knowledge, as symbolic capital and as the basis for truth, sparks divisiveness - in particular scientific knowledge versus experiential knowledge. Changes to the exclusive North American model, such as those instituted in the Caimgorms, mark the increased social utility and inclusive nature of national parks. The challenge remains for park managers to reconcile values connected with nationalism and environmental ethics with values connected with local livelihoods.

Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming increasingly impoverished with ever-increasing gaps between rich and poor, particularly in deep rural areas where access to even the basic infrastructure needed for development is insufficient. Ironically such areas are often encountered on the edges of protected areas where conservation exists in its purest forms, the preservation of wildlife. Wildlife conservation, as a preservationist ideal, is in conflict with the rural poor who share its borders. Often the diminishing natural resource base, upon which the rural inhabitants depend for subsistence, is disappearing either through depletion or inside fences in the name of conservation. Having been placed on the development continuum, often by Western ideals, rural dwellers are now dependent on income-generation for their survival. This case study examines the opportunities for rural communities to become involved in meaningful income-generation and how local conservation bodies, managers of protected areas, might encourage and facilitate this. Often the challenge for conservation bodies is to accommodate the development needs of neighbours of protected areas within their own goals of preserving wildlife. The cultural basis of conservation is in transition, given the realisations of the depth of poverty and the new social questioning of the moral right to spend so much on what many now consider to be archaic notions of nature. The desire to integrate conservation with development is by itself insufficient to make a sustainable difference to local communities. Rather, holistic development models are needed to allow conservation to play an effective role in income-generation, from creating the background for successful businesses to helping create markets for produce. Analyses of current conservation techniques to involve communities in conservation suggest the need for a shifting of the conservative, preservationist culture that dominates conservation bodies, towards a more people-centred approach. With this comes a realisation that the goals of development cannot be achieved through conservation but ironically the goals of conservation can be achieved through development of neighbouring communities. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.