Political Ecology of African Peace Parks

Maano Ramutsindela is Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town and Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria. He is the University of Pretoria-University of Cape Town Future Africa Research Chair in Sustainability Transformations. He has researched peace parks in Africa for more than two decades.

"The Political Ecology of African Peace Parks is pioneering, theoretically sophisticated, and substantively rich. It meticulously challenges the dominant (neo) colonial conservation agenda and offers an alternative schema. This precious gift from Africa’s leading political ecologist should be a standard textbook in African universities."Abdi Samatar, Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota and member of Pan African Parliament."In a thoroughly researched and well written text, Maano Ramutsindela convincingly presents Peace Parks as critical sites for political ecology research. He deftly shows the colonial nature of transboundary conservation, the politics of land alienation, and the unresolved tensions within peace parks. A must-read for anyone studying African conservation efforts."William Moseley, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, Macalester College, author of Decolonizing African Agriculture."This book provides a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the history, socio-political context, and on-the-ground impacts of peace parks in Africa; a must-read for conservation scholars and practitioners alike. It provides a well-substantiated and much-needed counterargument to the ideology avidly promoted by its privileged supporters and beneficiaries."Marja Spierenburg, Leiden University.

• 1: Storytelling, Ideology, and Science in ‘African’ Peace Parks 2: Peace Parks: A Setting for Political Ecological Inquiry 3: The Colonial Foundation of Peace Parks 4: The Uneven Geography of Peace Parks in Africa 5: The Institutionalisation of Peace Parks in Southern Africa 6: Toponymy and the Politics of Land in TFCA Spaces 7: The Elusive Peace: Inter-State Tensions in Peace Parks Spaces