Managing tensions between biodiversity conservation and development in eastern Africa Post-growth perspectives

This research explores how biodiversity loss and development can be understood as stemming from a common driver – the relentless pursuit of economic growth under capitalism. While post-growth frameworks such as degrowth offer alternatives to capitalist growth, there remains limited scholarship on how they can be applied to the global South, and specifically to the management of conservation-development tensions. The overarching question for the thesis is thus: What are the main conservation-development tensions, how does the pursuit of economic growth influence their management and the resulting trade-offs, and what does this imply for post-growth alternatives in the global South?
Drawing on various post-growth frameworks and inclusive development, this question is explored through two landscape-level case studies in eastern Africa: first, the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem on the border of Kenya and Tanzania; and second, the Virunga Massif at the tri-point of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Uganda. Through a mixed-methods approach embedded in political ecology, four major forms of tensions were identified: conservation-agriculture tensions, human-wildlife conflict, conservation-tourism, and conservation-culture tensions.
Findings emphasize the inevitability of trade-offs, especially those stemming from spatial competition between conservation and agriculture. However, comparing management regimes – from exclusionary fortress conservation to mixed-use community conservancies – through a post-growth lens highlights the potential for more inclusive and ecologically sound trade-offs. While there are many entry points to expand the post-growth discourse in the global South with prefigurative examples identified in eastern Africa, a broader transition necessitates both top-down and bottom-up action at a global scale.