Results for ANTHRO 12SC: Parks and Peoples: Dilemmas of Protected Area Conservation in East Africa

The world-famous landscapes of East Africa, including Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Rift Valley lakes of Tanzania form the backdrop for this special course on protected area conservation and its impacts on local people. The course is designed to explore the pros and cons of parks and protected areas as they affect flora, fauna, and human inhabitants, and to address the dilemma of how to achieve conservation in a manner that creates local community benefits and promotes social justice. We will use a case study approach to ask: (1) What approach to protected area (PA) conservation has been taken in each case? Who are the key proponents and what are their main social and ecological objectives? (2) How successful has the protected area been at achieving its conservation goals? (3) What are the benefits of the PA to people and who receives them? (4) What are the costs of the PA to people and who pays them? (5) Where benefits are not commensurate to costs, what, if anything, is being done to address the imbalance? How well is it working? (6) Are there alternative conservation models that would make the interests of parks and people more compatible, and reduce the tradeoffs between them? What is needed to operationalize these alternative models, and how do they incentivize conservation behavior among local residents?nThis course includes an intensive 12-day expedition to Tanzania to observe firsthand the dilemmas of parks and peoples we have discussed in class. We are scheduled to visit Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Mt. Meru, and Serengeti National Parks, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and nearby Maasai villages. Both on campus and in Tanzania, the course emphasizes student contributions and presentations. Students are required to read one or two books a month over the summer, and to come to campus in the fall well-prepared to discuss each one, including co-leading the discussion of one of the readings. Students are also expected to carry out literature research on a particular conservation dilemma in East Africa that is of interest to them for the final assignment of the seminar, a 6- to 8-page paper, and to present the main findings of that paper during evening seminars as we travel in East AfricanNote: Students will arrive on campus and will be housed at Stanford until we leave for the travel portion of the course. A group of 20-some Stanford alumni will join us for the last 2 days on campus and for the travel portion of the course.