Abstract:
Crafting local institutions to allow more effective decision-making in the management of and
access to natural resources in and beyond parks has long been considered key to collaborative
governance. South Africa, in particular, has vigorously pursued collaborative governance as a
desired approach to managing natural resources as evident in the new arrangements for
previously restricted parks. However, though the discourse of collaborative governance has
occupied conservation thinking and practice globally, few studies have looked at the interplay
between local institutions, actors and collaborative governance involving indigenous huntergatherer
communities in Southern Africa. In response, we assess the local actors and
institutions that were put in place to facilitate collaborative governance of natural resources in
the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and its surrounds in South Africa. Our findings show that
though collaborative governance has a practical appeal, it is hampered by lack of
participation in decision-making, information dissemination, transparency, trust and
accountability, power relations, divergent interests and unequal access to natural resources.
The findings also draw our attention to issues of heterogeneity, even within indigenous
communities assumed to be homogenous by local conservation authorities as reflected in land
settlement agreements in co-managed parks. We argue that collaborative governance
arrangements need to reflect and be understood within the broader background of complex
local realities.
