Conservation’s Harvest? Seasonal Hunger, Imagined Livelihoods, and Good Milile Outside Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park

• In Event: 298 - Section on Environment and Technology Paper Session. Environment and Development (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Development)

Abstract

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) aims to integrate natural resource conservation and development. It is predicated on a quid pro quo between the state and residents living near conservation areas. The state delegates some power over natural resources to residents, and offers them economic and social incentives to abide by restrictions on natural resource use. In return, residents are expected to forgo poaching and environmentally deleterious agricultural practices. Since CBNRM efforts directly affect residents’ agricultural production and diets, their nutrition and health are key concerns. This paper elucidates why, despite CBNRM’s focus on food security and sustainable livelihoods, seasonal hunger (nsala, in Bemba) is still a yearly fact of life for residents in Mukungule, a community bordering Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park. Based on a year of ethnographic research, I argue that CBNRM provides perverse incentives to Mukungule residents, encouraging large risks for small game, and the utilization of nsala as an investment tactic. I show that the persistence of nsala in Mukungule must be understood alongside the pursuit of “good milile.” Literally “good eating,” good milile truly means “the good life.” It applies simultaneously (and sometimes contradictorily) to individual and social life. It is a metaphor for the longer-term personal and communal aspirations of Mukungule residents, and also shorthand for the small luxuries that make everyday living in the area more bearable, even enjoyable. In this sense, people “choose” nsala, making decisions aimed at achieving both the immediate desires and longer-term life goals that good milile comprises.

Author

• Joshua Garoon, University of Wisconsin-Madison