tial for partnership among rural communi-
ties, tour operators, and ZAWA to earn sig-
nificant revenue from a well-managed
wildlife estate – a formula that closely fol-
lows that laid out by donors supporting a
neo-liberal development agenda. For
donors, partnerships ideally take the form
proposed by the World Bank in their 1998-
1999 World Development Report, of a joint
action between the local state, civil society,
and businesses.^33 This formula was followed
closely in the Zambia Wildlife Act, where the
framework for CBNRM was predicated upon
building a cooperative relationship between
the hunting safari industry (businesses) and
representatives of local communities (civil
society) that lived in or near to Game
Management Areas under the guidance of
the Zambian Wildlife Authority. The Zambia
Wildlife Act of 1998 calls for a locally demo-
cratically elected Community Resource
Board (CRB), acting on behalf of the local
community, to “negotiate, in conjunction
with the Authority [ZAWA], co-management
agreements with hunting outfitters and pho-
tographic tour operators.”^34 These co-man-
agement agreements are intended to pro-
vide hunting outfitters access to a pre-
determined quota of wildlife found within
the GMA in exchange for the CRB receiving
a portion of the license fees paid by hunting
clientele to hunt wildlife in the GMA. In
return, the CRB will use this money to
develop the local area and to ensure that
local residents do not participate in illegal
resource use. The rhetoric continues that, if
successful co-management agreements are
negotiated in the country’s GMAs, not only
could ZAWA direct its limited resources
towards managing and protecting its vast
National Park system, but local communities
would benefit economically and travel down
the golden path to development.^35
Certainly rhetoric does not always concur
with reality, and these partnerships are not
based upon equal treatment. This is evi-
denced by The African College for CBNRM
and the role it plays in providing skills train-
ing to rural community members. The col-
lege trains 700 community residents a year,
provides 15 accredited courses, and sup-
ports an extension staff to reinforce these
skills (Lewis 1999:1). Its primary mission is
“to provide communities with skills needed
to fully participate in, contribute to, and
benefit from” (Lewis 1999:3) the local
CBNRM programme. Once the CRB are
elected, “a sustained training programme is
required to enable the CRB to meet all of its
legal obligations to ZAWA” (ADMADE
Sustainability Project 1999:5) through train-
ing programs that focus upon fiscal account-
ability, conducting rural needs assessments,
conducting self-surveillance for wildlife utili-
sation, and fulfilling their promise to the
rural community, ZAWA, and the safari
industry. There are no comparable training
programs for donors, the safari industry or
state authorities. However, because rural
Zambians still contend with the notion that
they are connected to nature in a way that
makes them incapable of “rational” decision-
making, they are compelled to undergo
training and allow out-
siders to make important
decisions about local
resources. Thus, the bur-
den of a workable
CBNRM is placed firmly
on rural communities
because they must con-
stantly shoulder the bur-
den of difference they
have inherited from pre-
vious relations with out-
siders.
As a result, CBNRM in
Zambia does not empow-
er rural Zambians to
make decisions about the
wildlife resources that are appropriate to
their circumstances. Rather it reinforces a
grammar of difference between rural
Zambians and other groups interested in
wildlife conservation and utilisation in
Zambia. In fact, the rhetoric of participation
History, cculture aand cconservation
the bboundaries oof aany
negotiations wwith rrural
residents wwere sset llong
before CCBNRM ppro-
grams wwere iinitiated ––
benefits wwere tto ccome
in tthe fform oof eeconom-
ic ddevelopment, nnot iin
rights oof aaccess tto tthe
wildlife rresource oor iin
any oother wway tthat
rural ggroups mmight
decide aas mmore aappro-
priate oor mmeaningful
