CONCLUSION:

Rethinking Conservation and Development:

Struggling for Justice

The East African geography is in a state of crisis. East African wildlife species - from little known species like the Crowned Eagle and the Zanzibar Red Colobus Monkey (both species are shown below) to the more well-known savanna species of lions, elephants, cheetahs, and rhinos - have been increasingly threatened with extinction in all of the ecological zones of East Africa, by "Northern" models of "development," economic expansion, and resource extraction that cannot be fully masked by the use of national parks as "band-aids" to provide limited wildlife sanctuaries in Kenya and Tanzania. The "Northern" marketing and imposition of exotic genetic resources upon the East African environment have proved extremely destructive for the fragile, semi-arid zones characterizing the majority of Kenya's and Tanzania's land surface. The cultivation of foreign cash crops ultimately serves to provide goods and products to "Northern" consumers based on an exploitative dependency relationship fostered between "North" and "South," that is profitable for "Northern" corporations and impoverishing for rural, East African farmers. The "modernization" process in East Africa's urban centers allows for more efficient distribution of "Northern," imported goods imposed upon the lives of the East African people, and allows for the centralization of socioeconomic processes of trade, foreign investment, and "foreign aid" that continue to be shaped by "Northern" governmental assistance programs and perpetuation of the colonial dependency relationship. Pastoral peoples and hunters and gatherers continue to be alienated from conservation and development strategies based on racist colonial notions that have been perpetuated in the modern era in national park and reserve models and in capitalist-driven socioeconomic dynamics that isolate traditional societies from natural resources and from sustainable land management strategies. Ecological and social processes in East Africa have reached a level of crisis that will soon lead to environmental and sociocultural collapse if the dynamics of human impoverishment and environmental degradation are not soon addressed and radically altered.

Throughout the colonial and postcolonial periods, the imposition and perpetuation of the capitalist mentality and socioeconomic system upon the East Africa Region has been directly connected to the deterioration of human and ecological systems to a state of profound crisis in the modern era. The preservation of Kenyan and Tanzanian dependency as economic satellites revolving around the exploitative and extractive dictates of Britain and the U.S., and the consequences of human and ecological dysfunction in East Africa, have been profoundly destructive. The degradation and impoverishment of the East African geography are the result of a globalized and colonizing capitalist network that is ideologically and practically unsustainable. Korten (1996) stresses this in stating: "It should now be clear that the cure for the deprivations of poverty will not, cannot, be found in the economic growth of a globalized free market that weakens and destroys the bonds of culture and community to the benefit of global corporations" (257), because the forces of sustainable sociocultural systems and unsustainable capitalist systems are diametrically opposed. This is revealed clearly by O'Connor's (1994) analysis of the notion of "sustainable" capitalism. As he correctly observes, "the short answer to the question 'Is sustainable capitalism possible?' is 'No,' while the longer answer is 'Probably not.' Capitalism is self-destructing and in crisis; the world economy makes more people hungry, poor, and miserable every day; the masses of peasants and workers cannot be expected to endure the crisis indefinitely; and nature, however 'ecological sustainability' is defined, is under attack everywhere" (O'Connor, 1994: 154). It is important to recognize that this profound unsustainability of capitalism is being manifested worldwide, in "Northern" as well as "Southern" nations. The economic growth and extraction models embraced by Britain and the United States have not allowed "Northern" peoples to escape the effects of environmental destruction and social dysfunction in human relationships in their own lives.

Marcuse's (1996) discussion of social justice and human liberation is insightful here. Basically, Marcuse (1996) argues that the modern, capitalist age is characterized by the perpetuation of "obsolete forms of the struggle for existence" (113) that directly threaten the realization of the potential for overcoming necessities in human existence; the modern age is contrary to progress towards a greater degree of human liberation. Marcuse (1996) suggests that "advanced industrial society is approaching the stage where continued progress would demand the radical subversion of the prevailing direction and organization of progress" (119), and that the "powers that be" stifle this trend to maintain domination over the society, by encouraging a kind of "one-dimensional thought" and a preservation of obsolete necessities that preserve systems of power as they currently exist. According to Marcuse (1996), this reveals "the internal contradiction of this civilization: the irrational element in its rationality" (119). As advanced industrial societies "progress" towards the potential for unimagined human liberation from necessity, they also attempt to "contain this trend within the established institutions" (119), and herein lies a significant contradiction. If the modern age is to remain consistent to its aims for "progress," it cannot "struggle for existence" and deny it simultaneously (in "Northern" as well as "Southern" countries), and remain faithful to a quest for human liberation. Marcuse's (1996) criticism focuses on capitalism's tendency to preserve unnecessary forms of profit motives, appropriation, and exploitation on national and international levels, which are contradictory to true progress towards human liberation. This contradiction is also played out clearly in relation to environmental issues today: continuing obsolete forms of resource use - pollution, waste, etc. - further constrain humanity by forcing us to pay for clean resources; continuing to rely on fossil fuels when we have the potential to make use of solar power, electric power, etc., prevents humanity from progressing towards a more pollution-free environment. In the context of East African exploitation, impoverishment, and degradation, as well as "Northern" social and ecological dysfunction, Marcuse's (1996) theories on the perpetuation of an antiliberatory socioeconomic system preserving unnecessary forms of dependency and domination are clearly applicable, revealing the self-destructive tendencies of the globalized capitalist system for the people and the environment in both the "North" and "South."

In the final analysis, the unsustainability and the inherently dominating tendencies that the capitalist system inflicts on "Northern" as well as "Southern" peoples and ecological systems proves to be irreconcilable with a "cure" for the poverty and environmental destruction in East Africa. Once again, an extension of Marx's (1996) analysis of crisis situations reinforces this point. The finite resources of the planet "must ultimately impose limits to economic growth" (Schnaiberg et. al., 1994: 202), and this creates ecological and human crisis situations that are proving more and more difficult to overcome. East Africa's degradation and impoverishment illustrate the reality of these crisis situations today, and it is clear that an exploitative, self-destructive mode of socioeconomic reproduction cannot sustain itself much longer as East African resources are approaching the brink of collapse. "If ever increasing global poverty and unemployment are not sufficient to bring the assumption of economic expansion into question, the collapse of the global ecosystem on which all life depends will" (Schnaiberg et. al., 1994: 202).

Listening to the People: The Potential for Sustainability

The suggestion that East African degradation and impoverishment will not be resolved until the perpetuation of a capitalist and colonizing global framework is abandoned, may seem unrealistic, simplistic, and naive. But capitalist and colonial power dynamics in East Africa have been the primary factors shaping the crisis situations in Kenya and Tanzania today. If radical steps are not taken to reverse these destructive and exploitative processes, the collapse of East African cultural and ecological systems will inevitably result. In beginning to restructure East African human-environmental dynamics, it is instructive to consider alternatives to "Northern" governmental assistance and aid programs that perpetuate the current, dependency relationships. Although NGOs and grassroots organizations have many limitations - including funding within an exploitative, capitalist framework, and "Northern," paternalistic biases based on colonial and capitalist models of "modernization" - they have the potential of actively supporting social and economic sustainability through their "flexibility, speed of operation, and ability to respond quickly to changing circumstances" (Vivian, 1994: 190). "Northern" solidarity efforts with East African cultural groups and environmental issues, and the involvement of "Northern" activists within their own countries to challenge the exploitative, dehumanizing, and dysfunctional effects of the modern industrial era within their own lives, can help provide effective steps towards deconstructing the negative impacts of a global capitalist framework.

Ultimately, though, any "Northern" efforts at conservation and development in Kenya and Tanzania must be based on the central involvement of East African peoples in the process of restoring human and ecological sustainability to the region. These efforts must focus specifically on the involvement of rural communities who relate most directly with the natural resources of Kenya and Tanzania and have the greatest sensitivity to the environmental problems in the diverse ecological regions of East Africa. The management of environmental resources by women demands that they be not only involved in policy decisions but directly responsible for their structuring and organization. This will require a radical transformation in traditional and colonial gender divisions that continue to alienate and exploit women in the modern era. The paternalistic and capitalist disregard for pastoral peoples as "backward" and "barbaric" must be abandoned if their valuable, traditional knowledge of ecological processes and sustainable sociocultural management practices are to be applied effectively towards a restructuring of human-environmental relationships on a national level in East Africa. The importance of indigenous knowledge in relation to sustainable models for sociocultural organization must be respected and acknowledged seriously if the perpetuation of a dependency relationship between "North" and "South" in East Africa and worldwide is to replaced with a more ecocentric and life-centered social and ecological framework. This will require that rural communities - who are often the most oppressed and dominated in East Africa - assume central positions in choosing and directing conservation and development strategies that integrate human and environmental needs in Kenya and Tanzania. Clearly, certain traditional techniques such as shifting cultivation will have limited effectiveness and even a detrimental effect, because they can no longer provide sustainable strategies to a steadily increasing human population in East Africa. But it is also clear that traditional methods of multicropping and of rotational livestock use of rangelands have beneficial effects for the people - reinforcing sustainable use of the land and local control of resources - and for the environment - by improving soil fertility. The focus on capitalist and colonizing socioeconomic processes will have to be dismantled at all levels of East African life. Rural communities and peoples must be the central actors in the process of restoring ecocentric sustainability to East Africa. Rural communities must also be allocated local control of resources to provide personal incentives for them to preserve the resources and the land sustainably. East African sustainability must begin with listening carefully to the voices and the knowledge of indigenous peoples of Kenya and Tanzania, who have the most intimate sense of the complexities and capacities for sustainability of East African human and environmental processes. The transformation of East African and international relationships with the natural world and with other human peoples will be a long and arduous process, but it is a process that is becoming absolutely necessary. East Africa has reached a level of crisis that forces "Northern" and "Southern" peoples alike to choose, between ecological and social self-destruction, and the struggle for a sustainable process of liberation from these exploitative and life-threatening dynamics. It is fundamentally a choice between life and death. The choice is ours.

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