PRIMITIVE IDEAS - PROTECTED AREA BUFFER ZONES AND THE POLITICS OF LAND IN AFRICA

This article critically evaluates participatory, integrated conservati on and development programmes in Africa, focusing on protected area bu ffer zones. I argue that, despite the emphasis on participation and be nefit-sharing, many of the new projects replicate more coercive forms of conservation practice and often constitute an expansion of state au thority into remote rural areas. I suggest that the reasons for this s tate of affairs can be traced in parr to the persistence in conservati on interventions of Western ideas and images of the Other. These stere otypes result in misguided assumptions in conservation programmes whic h have important implications for the politics of land in buffer zone communities.