240197 SE Borderland Studies in Southern Africa (P3) (2013S)

Many border zones in Southern Africa boast a huge biodiversity potential because of their high concentration of peculiar types of natural resources, such as wild plants and wildlife species. This fact has less to do with ecological conditions but with the reduced human impact in borderlands because of political tensions and warfare in colonial and postcolonial times. In this historical context the turnaround from violent exchange or at least political tensions and mistrust to amicable cooperation becomes even more compelling. Due to a high level of poverty in the rural areas adjacent to boundary conservation zones such plans need a strong economic bottom line in order to convince transboundary communities to buy in the grand vision. It has been stated that ecotourism as the predominant strategy of land use outperforms agriculture in the economic sense.
Beyond doubt wildlife tourism emerged as a booming industry in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, thus turning border zones into economically highly viable areas. What remains to be seen is, if its benefits are equally shared or if the power-divide between states, the private sector, environmental NGOs and local communities proves too adamant to overcome by existing initiatives for poverty alleviation and regional integration. One of the key test cases for economically uplifting aims may be found in the participation and inclusion of local communities and residents in border zones, some of which claim older land rights for many areas that have come under transborder land use regimes. Representatives of indigenous or local communities thus sue(d) for access to resources and revenue share in transfrontier parks. The development strategy of "bewildering borders" by opening up transboundary conservation areas through dedicated land use for wilderness tourism, may thus appear ‘bewildering’ to border dwellers, coined ‘remote area dwellers’ in some countries (e.g. Botswana) and therefore deserves special "borderland studies" attention to the most strident question: i.e. How the re-spatialization of borderlands my contribute to a revised and hopefully improved distribution of all possible benefits from transfrontier areas.