Rough Waters Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park

About this book

Explores one of the most crucial problems of the contemporary era - struggles over access to, and use of, the environment. It focuses on the Mafia Island Marine Park, a national park in Tanzania that became the centre of political conflict during its creation in the mid-1990s. The park, reflecting a new generation of internationally sponsored projects, was designed to encourage environmental conservation as well as development. The book details the day-to-day tensions and alliances that arose among Mafia residents, Tanzanian government officials, and representatives of international organizations, as each group attempted to control and define the park. Walley's analysis argues that a technocentric approach to conservation and development can work to the detriment of both poorer people and the environment.

Contents

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Glossary of KiSwahili Terms xv Preface xix Introduction Conservation and Development in the Age of the Global 1 Part One 29 Chapter One Battling for the Marine Park 31 Part Two 67 Chapter Two "When People Were as Worthless as Insects": History, Popular Memory, and Tourism on Chole 69 Chapter Three The Making and Unmaking of "Community" 105 Chapter Four Where There Is No Nature 138 Part Three 167 Chapter Five Establishing Experts: Conservation and Development from Colonialism to Independence 169 Chapter Six Pushing Paper and Power: Bureaucracy and Knowledge within a National Marine Park 190 Chapter Seven Tourist Encounters: Alternate Readings of Nature and "Development" 217 Epilogue Participating in the Twenty-first Century 244 Notes 265 Bibliography 281 Index 299

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Biography

Christine J. Walley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology