Conservation attitudes and natural resource use among Mandinka in Kiang West, the Gambia

Joshua Paul Johnson

Rapid population growth, increased rural-to-urban migration and the declining store of available natural resources have caused a shift in the way residents of the developing world conceptualize and use land. Eco-tourism is a growing sector of many developing economies and seeks to ameliorate multiple social and environmental problems. The creation of government-protected National Park wilderness areas has been a key factor in the expansion of eco-tourism. However, the required changes in land use patterns and natural resource extraction hinge on strong public support and an understanding of conservation policies. Thus, this study examines public opinion of conservation areas and patterns of resource extraction and land use. Fieldwork in five villages neighboring the National Park in the Kiang West region of The Gambia, West Africa accessed residents' attitudes towards government regulation, land conservation, types of medicinal and non-medicinal plants gathered from forestland and indigenous environmental beliefs. Results from semi-structured interviews (N=44, 24 male) in the villages adjacent to the park, contextualized with Participant-Observation experience, show a complex and varied understanding of conservation and land-use practices within protected areas. The majority of residents support governmental protection of land, but destruction of crops by wild animals within the park combined with an opaque tourism revenue sharing agreement has led to feelings of frustration and resentment. Residents of rural villages conceptualize their natural resources through the lens of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and have limited concepts of global phenomena and environmental threats. Educational attainment was positively correlated with the number of stated environmental threats (r = .34, p <.05). Furthermore, a qualitative analysis comparing responses from the highest bush resource gatherers with those who gathered the fewest bush resources reveals a more comprehensive concept of ecology in the former group. The implications of these findings show the importance of community engagement during the creation and evolution of National Parks and other protected areas. Local belief systems and multiple perspectives must be accommodated in order to create a sustainable and equitable system.

Conservation attitudes and natural resource use among Mandinka in Kiang West, the Gambia

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Metrics

Details