Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T05:25:54.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ecology, Economy and Empowerment: Eco-Tourism and the Game Lodge Industry in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas A. Koelble
Thomas A. Koelble*
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An extensive game lodge industry operates across Southern Africa. Many of these lodges market themselves as ‘eco-tourism destinations’ where wildlife protection, community development and the maintenance of bio-diversity are supposed to be central values of the business model. This article deals with the tensions that arise for the management of such enterprises between a multiplicity of local and global interests around land use pertaining to conflicting motivations of profitability and capital-intensive development, protection of bio-diversity and enabling community empowerment. The article illustrates the interplay between these competing interests, preferences and claims surrounding the use to which the land these lodges occupy is used. It examines a set of cases in South Africa with special reference to the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve.

Keywords

rural economic developmentland reformland use
Type
Research Articles
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , April 2011 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2011 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdelal, Rawi and Koelble, Thomas. 2008. Londolozi: Towards a Sustainable Business Model and Ecological Integrity in Southern Africa. Harvard Business School Publishing.Google Scholar
Agrarwal, Arun. 2005. Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Ashley, Caroline, Roe, Dilys, and Goodwin, Harold. 2001. “Pro-Poor Tourism Strategies: Making Tourism Work for the Poor.” Pro-Tourism Report (1), April. Overseas Development Institute.Google Scholar
Beinart, William. 2003. The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, ivestock, and the Environment 1770-1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjoerk, Peter. 2007. “Definition Paradoxes: From Concept to Definition”, In Critical Issues in Ecotourism, edited by Higham, James. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 23–45.Google Scholar
Brockington, Dan. 2002. Fortress Conservation: The Preservation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Carruthers, Jane. 1995.Google Scholar
Child, Brian. 2004. ed. Parks in Transition: Biodiversity, Rural Development and the Bottom Line. London:Earthscan.Google Scholar
Collinson, Mark, Kok, Pieter, and Garenne, Michel. 2006. “Migration and Changing Settlement Patterns: Multilevel Data for Policy.” Report 03-04-01. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.Google Scholar
Crais, Clifton. 2002. The Politics of Evil: Magic, State Power, and the PoliticalImagination in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Duffy, Rosaleen. 2002. A Trip Too Far: Ecotourism, Politics and Exploitation. London:Earthscan.Google Scholar
Fabricius, Christo, Koch, Eddie, Magome, Hector, and Turner, Stephen. eds. 2004. Rights, Resources and Rural Development: Community-based Resource Management in Southern Africa. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Fennell, David. 2002. Ecotourism (2nd edition). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gibson, Clark C. 1999. Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Griffith, Tom and Robin, Libby. eds. 1997. Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Society. Pietermaritzberg: University of Natal Press.Google Scholar
Honey, Martha. 1999. Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? Washington DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Higham, James. ed. 2007. Critical Issues in Ecotourism: Understanding a complex Tourism Phenomenon. Amsterdam: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, Richard and Weiner, Daniel. eds. 1997. No More Tears: Struggles for Land In Mpumalanga, South Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Lund, Christian. 2008. Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Raymond. 1998. “ISO 14001 Guidance Manual.” National Center for Environmental Decision-making Research, University of Tennessee. McLaren, Deborah. 2003. Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel (2nd edition). Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Meredith, Martin. 2007. Mugabe: Power, Plunder and the Struggle for Zimbabwe. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Neumann, Roderick P. 1998. Imposing Wilderness: Struggles over Livelihood and Nature Preservation in Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, Carol. 2007. The Business of Ecotourism. Victoria: Publishing.Google Scholar
Ramutsindela, Maano. 2007. Transfrontier Conservation in Africa: At the Confluence of Capital, Politics and Nature. Wallingford: CABI.Google Scholar
Robins, Steven and van der Waal, Kees. 2007. “Model Tribes and Iconic Conservationists? Tracking the Makuleke Restitution Case in the Kruger National Park.” unpublished manuscript, University of Stellenbosch Department of Anthropology. Department of Tourism and the Environment. 2006/7. South African Tourism: Annual Report 2006/7. Pretoria.Google Scholar
Tsing, Anna L. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Van der Heever, Alex. 2006. “Land Care Report for Sparta and Marthly: 1978 to Present. Environmental Report to Management.Google Scholar
Varty, Dave. 2008. The Full Circle. Johannesburg: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Varty, Shan and Buchanan, Molly. 1997. I Speak of Africa. Johannesburg: Londolozi Publishing.Google Scholar