AAt the 2003 World Parks Congress

Transboundary Protected Areas (TBPAs)

were trumpeted as an idea whose time has

come. The Congress recommended taking

actions to create and promote new TBPAs

as an important strategy for both safe-

guarding biodiversity and delivering ‘bene-

fits beyond boundaries’. These bilateral (and

sometimes multilateral) conservation initia-

tives have proliferated in recent years and

South Africa, for example, is currently

engaged in six of them.

Alongside the re-establishment of ecological

integrity TBPAs have a remarkably ambi-

tious set of objectives including promoting

regional economic integration, community

empowerment and fostering peace.^1 The

transboundary conservation discourse is

embedded in a new global cultural politics

of conservation drawing together a wide

grouping of ideologies and actors such that

the private sector and international finance

institutions have found common cause with

global environmental organisations and

some national governments. TBPAs appear

simultaneously to meet conservation priori-

ties, corporate agendas and governance

goals (at national, regional and international

levels).

Yet perhaps inevitably given the turbulent

history of protected areas – even those

without such a complex range of actors and

interests – TBPAs generate certain tensions

and points of conflict. Each TBPA has its

own unique dilemmas that may not be

repeated elsewhere. There seem to be,

however, several more general paradoxes or

tensions inherent in the establishment and

management of ‘natural’ ecoregions in var-

iegated cultural landscapes – both ideologi-

cal and practical, and at the global, regional

and local scales. This paper will explore the

tensions between: radical bioregionalism

and scientific ecoregionalism, ecoregional-

ism and neoliberalism, TBPA planning and

national sovereignty, and top-down and bot-

tom up managerial processes. From all of

the above, the paper will draw recommen-

dations for the more equitable and effective

management of TBPAs.

Conservation aas ccultural aand ppolitical ppractice

Tensions aand pparadoxes iin tthe mmanagement oof

Transboundary PProtected AAreas

William WWolmer

Summary.Ecoregional planning at an increased spatial scale has become the driving paradigm in pro-

tected area planning. This paradigm, which underpins Transboundary Protected Areas (TBPAs), holds that

ecological integrity does and should transcend administrative and national boundaries. Yet such initiatives

are in practice intrinsically political and raise important questions about power, accountability and legiti-

macy. This paper investigates the cultural politics of TBPAs, drawing out several ideological and practical

tensions inherent in TBPA management at the global, regional and local scales. These include: the diver-

gence between grassroots bioregionalism and top-down, technical ecoregionalism; trade-offs between

conservation goals and attracting private sector investment and power asymmetries in public-private part-

nerships; the ceding of national sovereignty to supra- and sub-national entities; and tensions between the

centralised and top-down nature of TBPA agreements and rhetoric on community participation and

empowerment. Much experience to date suggests that many TBPAs are more likely to increase centralised

state power and constrain livelihood strategies than to boost communities’ socioeconomic opportunities or

role in management. In conclusion the paper makes recommendations for the more equitable and effec-

tive management of TBPAs.