Multi-level Partnerships in Uganda’s Gorilla Tourism: Power, Processes and Poverty: the Case of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Abstract

Tourism as a social activity has been so normalized in the world and academics today that it is often taken as a given. Various organizations from the international, regional, and local levels have increasingly teamed up into partnerships to perform and maintain tourism. Furthermore, there is a seeming consensus that tourism is the best strategy to alleviate poverty and at the same time conserve nature. This thesis treads through the intricacies of the processes through which multi-level partnerships (MLPs) have been formed to produce and maintain gorilla tourism in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP). The research focuses on two case studies (BCRC – a community tourism enterprise, and CMGL – a private-community partnership tourism enterprise) to analyze the extent to which tourism contributes to livelihoods. The research undertakes this task by combining the Actor-Network Theory’s process of translation and the sustainable livelihood approach as a methodological point of entry. The research is purely qualitative. Information in this thesis is based on a narrative analysis of data obtained through semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, participant observations, focus group discussions, and document study. Chapter four indicates that the story of establishing gorilla tourism and related community projects at BINP is also a story of how conservation discourses have been translated into the local realities of BINP. Chapter five presents two case studies to show how the global and local interweave to form tourism partnerships. The chapter also reflects that livelihood aspects are part of the materials used by actors in the negotiations to build and maintain the conservation network. On that basis, this thesis concludes that contrary to many accounts, global environmental discourses such as sustainable development are not produced by powerful actors in the North. The discourses shape and are re-shaped by the continuous process of translation to produce effects such as tourism. Tourism impacts on livelihoods are largely in form of indirect impacts accruing from linking livelihoods to the tourism network through partnerships. The thesis suggests establishing more chains to connect livelihoods with tourism and further research on the effectiveness of translation strategies such as tourism enterprises in improving local community livelihoods and conservation of BINP