The Darkside of Conservation

At the outset, let me say that I’ve great reverence to Bishop Martin of Mtumbuka of the Diocese of Karonga. He unapologetically speaks on matters to do with social justice and governance, in addition to guiding Catholics to their faith.

And in an exercise of the same, on Saturday he rebuked some Malawi Defense Force (MDF) soldiers for allegedly mistreating the people of Kasasile in Nkhata Bay. He was speaking during the installation of Yohane Suzgo Nyirenda as new bishop of the Diocese of Mzuzu.

The background to the story is that The Daily Times of August 31, 2024, published a story which chronicled alleged abuses by MDF soldiers on the people of Kasasile, accusing them of encroachment. The people outrightly deny the accusation.

Consequently, MDF deployed soldiers to the area who, among other abuses; raided their houses and crop fields, including beating them up. The story of the people of Kasasile has been on the agenda ever since.

No wonder, Bishop Mtumbuka spoke about it in front of President Lazarus Chakwera, who attended the installation ceremony.

Kasasile borders the MDF’s firing range in Viphya, a pristine oasis protected by the soldiers. 

But I won’t be drawn to comment on who’s right or wrong on the land dispute. What is clear in this tussle is that both parties—the people of Kasasile and the MDF—have arguments worth our ears.

Interestingly, this land dispute exposes the flipside of the conservation model we use to designate areas as “protected zones”. For far too long, we have used the fortress model, which restricts locals from accessing a protected area freely given up by them or their ancestors or forcibly removed.

Look, these protected areas such as parks and forest reserves come into existence at the expense of the locals. Basically, people ought to be resettled to pave the way for establishment of these protected areas.

When these areas are gazetted, they become no-go zones to local communities, rendering the permission to access the protected areas in the hands of the ones managing them. It can be the government itself or conservation firms.

That’s how Kasungu National Park and other protected areas came into existence. Now, by doing so, the lives of the people are disturbed because they must adapt to new environments they have been relocated to and find new land for both farming and settlement.

And that’s exactly what happened to the people of Kasasile. Records show that locals voluntarily gave the land to MDF in 1967, which the latter designated as a protected area. Henceforth, the locals have been restricted access.  

That’s how the fortress model of conversation deprives locals of their land. It takes away what duly belonged to the community and eventually brands them encroachers or squatters the very land of the very they gave.

In essence, this model systematically grabs land from the locals using the law and it labels the original owners as invaders. This model traces its roots in 1872 in the U.S., when indigenous peoples were evicted from their land to pave the way for the first national park in the world.

Using this model, in many places particularly in Africa, colonial governments set aside places as protected areas, purposefully for trophy hunting. But these areas were inhabited by indigenous people and their eviction from their place they called home, disrupted their way of life.  

So, in the present scenario at Kasasile and other communities surrounding protected areas, we should expect these fallouts happening regularly because people will always crave access to these places for sustenance, among other reasons.

Until we relax these restrictions by allowing locals to sustainably use natural resources in protected areas or putting them [the locals] at the centre of managing these protected areas, Bishop Mtumbuka should brace himself for more public rebukes to the MDF.

They rightfully protect what was designated by law but to the detriment of rightful owners of the land, in this case, the people of Kasasile. And that’s the dark side of conservation using the fortress model.