Communities, wildlife and the 'new conservation' in Africa

Over the last decade the concepts, policies and practices of conservation in Africa have begun to shift towards what has been viewed as a community-based approach. This introductory paper to the Policy Arena argues that the ideas underpinning this shift-a greater interest in local level and community-based natural resource management, the treatment of conservation as simply one of many forms of natural resource use and a belief in the contribution that markets can make to the achievement of conservation goals-are better understood as a 'new conservation'. This new conservation is presently diffusing through Africa both challenging 'fortress conservation' and working alongside it. It is no panacea for the problems that conservation faces but it does provide a basis from which more effective policies and institutions can evolve.