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Conservation in Africa: Challenging Student Preconceptions by Drawing on the Teacher's Research

Contact details

Dr Regina Scheyvens
Geography Programme
School of People, Environment and Planning
Massey University
PB 11222
Palmerston North
New Zealand

Tel: + 64 6 350 5209 x2509
Fax: + 64 6 350 5644
Email: r.a.scheyvens@massey.ac.nz

Classification Category

Bringing data/findings from staff research/consultancy into the curriculum.

Context

• Course/unit/module title: Sustainable development module
• Course title: Society, Environment and Place
• Level: first year

What does the teacher do?

All first year Geography students support the concept of 'sustainable development', but in class I try to unpack this term by introducing them to the complexity of social, cultural, political and environmental issues that underpin it. They tend to assume, for example, that dominant Western methods of conservation - such as establishing parks or other protected areas devoid of people - are common sense. Based on my own research I try to get students to explore, and sometimes, to provoke an emotional response to, challenging questions about conservation in Third World contexts. Thus in one lecture I write the following on the board at the start of class:

Shooting elephants is an ideal form of conservation.

I then ask students to talk about this briefly amongst themselves before going on to discuss one of the issues I looked at during fieldwork in Southern Africa in 1998. My aim is to broaden their understanding of conservation issues, particularly to help them recognise that conservation based on western ideas has often been imposed on Third World countries, despite the fact that it may undermine the lives and well-being of local people. The slides I use depict the following:

• the lack of amenities in villages bordering national park
• the way in which parks have essentially become a playground for white tourists, with benefits flowing mainly to tour operators and the government
• crop damage on the banks of the Zambezi River in Zambia

I complement these slides with a discussion concerning the forced displacement of indigenous people who previously lived on the land now designated as protected conservation estates, and the story of elephants swimming across the Zambezi river from the rather barren Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe to the Chiawa communal lands in Zambia to eat the lush crops planted by peasant farmers. To local people, wild animals are a threat, and the national parks and conservation programmes praised by western countries are seen as prioritising animal rights over human rights.

One anecdote in particular is used to demonstrate to students the difficult situation faced by the Zambians:

At the village store I met a man who was distraught. Three months previously he had planted 50 young banana trees and he had been carrying water to his garden on a daily basis to nurture the young trees. The previous night, hippos had been grazing in the area and now all of the trees were destroyed. Bananas are the only cash crop for most people in this area and the money earned by this man's family from his bananas would have been used for essential purchases such as medicine, transport, school uniforms and school fees.

I go on to describe the wildlife management programme CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources), which operates in Zimbabwe, a country where the elephant population is not under any threat - in fact, it has increased to such levels that it threatens other species. CAMPFIRE explicitly sets out to empower local communities by allowing them to manage natural resources in their area and to determine how they can benefit economically from these resources. Communities in wildlife-rich CAMPFIRE areas have generally opted to allow safari companies to bring trophy hunters onto their land to hunt on a sustained yield basis.

WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) advisors work with communities to establish hunting quotas based on how many animals could be shot on their land in one year without threatening the species as a whole: e.g. this may amount to 2 elephants, 3 buffalo, and 50 impala. The community then calls on safari companies to tender for the right to bring hunters in to shoot these animals. This can bring in good money to local communities, with a single elephant trophy valued at around US$10,000. They are usually also allowed to keep the meat from any kills - a valuable source of protein in their impoverished lands.

The trophy money is used for community development. Some communities have chosen to build new clinics or school rooms, while others have built electric fences around their crops to keep wild animals at bay. Importantly, the people now see wild animals as an asset, rather than just a threat to their livelihoods. This has led to a change of heart within many communities which are part of the CAMPFIRE scheme: they are now protecting the wild animals in their vicinity and reporting poachers to authorities.

Without travelling to Africa and seeing for myself the complex relationship between people, wildlife and conservation interventions, it would have been difficult for me to challenge my students with the notion that limited shooting of elephants may actually contribute to broader conservation goals.

Hot tips and things to look out for

Have plenty of 'evidence' on hand (e.g. visual - slides or video clips; short articles; personal anecdotes) to 'prove' to students that the issue is more complex than they first imagine. For example, when I ask students to raise their hands at the start of the lecture if they agree with the statement that shooting elephants is an ideal form of conservation, none will do this. It is important to use a variety of means to show them that there are alternative ways of understanding how conservation may work best in diverse contexts.

Does it work?

Comments from students on SECAT (student evaluation of course content and teaching) forms, have indicated increased enjoyment, interest and relevance of lectures when my research material was included:

• Really enjoyed subject matter of paper. Own experiences/slides of lecturer added to the interest (SECAT feedback).
• She has brought in her own experiences as examples and that makes the topic more 'real' and enjoyable (SECAT feedback).

My experiences in what students gain from a strong research-teaching nexus are ratified by overseas studies cited in Jenkins (2000). Neumann (1994), for example, studied undergraduate and postgraduate students in an Australian research-oriented university and found that students felt they benefited from research-active staff in the following ways: firstly, staff seemed interested in what they were teaching; secondly, students felt that their course material was up to date; and thirdly, it gave students an insight into the lives of their teachers and what motivated them in their work.

Relevant references

Jenkins, A 2000 The relationship between teaching and research: where does geography stand and deliver? Journal of Geography in Higher Education 24(3): 325-351.

Neumann, R 1994 The teaching-research nexus: applying a framework to university students' learning experiences European Journal of Education 29(3): 323-339.