Valuing nature in global production networks: The role of hunting tourism for nature conservation in Zambezi, Namibia

Abstract

Southern African ecosystems are threatened by biodiversity loss, but it remains highly controversial whether nature conservation can be successfully achieved by commodifying ecosystems through tourism or by withdrawing habitats from their integration into globalised production. This article contributes to the debate by applying the Global Production Network (GPN) approach to analyse institutional dynamics and actors involved in the commodification of nature. While highlighting historical drivers of GPN articulation, we advance the GPN framework by integrating a practice-based perspective on value-making. Based on archival research, qualitative interviews and quantitative data, this contribution examines the historical and current commodification of wildlife in the Zambezi region in north eastern Namibia. Under the umbrella of the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) policy, the post-apartheid government allows the regulated harvesting of individual animals for hunting tourism. This policy mobilises wildlife as an endogenous natural asset that is embedded in the region. As a consequence, local institutions emerge that enable strategic coupling processes with the global hunting industry to initiate development trajectories in the remote region. However, the historical perspective reveals that former elites are able to take advantage of these newly emerging opportunities and maintain a powerful position in the Global Production Network until today. The analysis shows three mechanisms that drive the valuation of nature: local institution-building, quota-making and revenue sharing. We conclude that the valuation of nature is a way of mobilising regional assets through strategic coupling and gains realised from this commodification are used to build local institutions that ensure ongoing valuation.