Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park

by Christine J. Walley

Rough Waters explores one of the most crucial problems of the contemporary era--struggles over access to, and use of, the environment. It combines insights from anthropology, history, and environmental studies, mounting an interdisciplinary challenge to contemporary accounts of "globalization." The book focuses on The Mafia Island Marine Park, a national park in Tanzania that became the center of political conflict during its creation in the mid-1990s. The park, reflecting a new generation of internationally sponsored projects, was designed to encourage environmental conservation as well as development. Rather than excluding residents, as had been common in East Africa's mainland wildlife parks, Mafia Island was intended to represent a new type of national park that would encourage the participation of area residents and incorporate their ideas.


While the park had been described in the project's general management plan as "for the people and by the people," residents remained excluded from the most basic decisions made about the park. The book details the day-to-day tensions and alliances that arose among Mafia residents, Tanzanian government officials, and representatives of international organizations, as each group attempted to control and define the park. Walley's analysis argues that a technocentric approach to conservation and development can work to the detriment of both poorer people and the environment. It further suggests that the concept of the global may be inadequate for understanding this and other social dramas in the contemporary world.

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2004

Reviews

[Gabby R · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me due to my interest in marine conservation and tourism. I found the way that Wallet explained the place - Chloe Island itself, the entangled oral history, impact of colonialism and capitalism very well done. I also enjoyed the way Walley drew on the concept of “social drama”. I also found the chapter where Walley focused on local definitions of nature interesting, along with the impact of capitalism on ways of life, especially in regard to tourism.

That being said, I wish that Walley engaged with the stakeholders and the main actors in this social drama more directly in this text. I felt like there were perspectives missing, such as those from park rangers. Also, I can’t help but think this work would have benefitted from more explicit engagement with community-based research methods and Indigenous scholarship… they were implicitly evident though.

I’d recommend this book to those wishing to gain an understanding of literature on globalization in the early 21st century, the concept of social drama, and connections between history and place. Despite the tittle and topic, this book did not engage with human-non-human entanglements in the way I would have expected.