Imposing Wilderness

Arusha National Park in northern Tanzania, known for its scenic beauty, embodies in microcosm all the political-ecological dilemmas facing protected areas throughout Africa: it is, in part, a battle ground. The roots of the ongoing struggle between the park on Mount Meru and the neighboring Meru peasant communities go much deeper, in Roderick Neumann's illuminating analysis, than the issues of poverty, population growth, and ignorance usually cited. The conflicts regularly erupting there and elsewhere reflect differences that go back to the beginning of colonial rule. By imposing a European ideal of pristine wilderness, Neumann says, the establishment of national parks and protected areas displaced African meanings as well as material access to the land. The book focuses on the symbolic importance of natural landscapes among various social groups in this setting, and how it relates to conflicts between peasant communities and the state. Neumann's thoughtful framing of the issues that fuel ongoing controversies will interest ecologists as well as those interested in political economy and development in Africa.