Geoforum 38 (2007) 207–219 www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum 0016-7185/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.08.001 Conservation and community in the new South Africa: A case study of the Mahushe Shongwe Game Reserve Brian H. King Department of Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station – A3100, Austin, TX 78712-1098, USA Received 14 June 2005; received in revised form 11 August 2006 Abstract The idealization of natural landscapes and peoples during colonialism, coupled with the popularity of sustainable development in the postcolonial era, has contributed to the expansion of conservation planning throughout the African continent. Concerns surrounding the promotion of national and international conservation agendas at the expense of local livelihood needs have generated interest in commu- nity conservation projects that attempt to include local participation and knowledge in natural resource management. The early excite- ment associated with community conservation has waned in light of recent assessments that it has been unsuccessful in meeting its ecological and social goals. This parallels other research that suggests communities are understood in generic or homogenous ways that inXuence how these initiatives are understood. Using a case study of the Mahushe Shongwe Game Reserve, this paper evaluates how rural households access environmental and economic resources to produce livelihoods, and how these access patterns impact their views of the project. It is argued that there are signiWcant livelihood variations within the community that shape the ways households engage with, and beneWt from, conservation planning. Rather than strictly viewing Mahushe Shongwe as a constraint to environmental resource access or site for limited employment, community members identify a number of beneWts from its existence including education and development opportunities. Additionally, transformations in governance systems in the region impact community views of the project since younger residents are less likely to engage with the Matsamo Tribal Authority, which participates in managing the reserve. The consequence is that conservation has various impacts and meanings within a speciWc community that remain tied to the livelihood and governance systems being renegotiated in the post-apartheid era.  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: South Africa; Mahushe Shongwe Game Reserve; Conservation; Community conservation; Livelihood; Development 1. Introduction The colonial era marked the beginning of a lengthy his- tory of external intervention in Africa typiWed by the romanticization of African landscapes and peoples for the beneWt of colonial powers (Adams and McShane, 1992; Adams and Mulligan, 2003; Anderson and Grove, 1987; Beinart, 1989; Beinart and McGregor, 2003; Grove, 1992, 1995; Schroeder, 1999). As numerous authors argue, this resulted in the expansion of conservation throughout the continent and separation of indigenous populations from natural resources and territories on which they depended for their survival (Colchester, 1993; Ghimire, 1994; Ghimire and Pimbert, 1997; McCabe et al., 1992; Neumann, 1998; Peluso, 1993). Concerns about the impacts of conservation upon human populations have generated interest in com- munity conservation initiatives that, at least rhetorically, embrace the need for local input and participation. The African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources was adopted in 1968 and broadened the deWnition of conservation to include attention to local resources (Adams, 2001). In 1980, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) published the World Conservation Strategy, which forcefully argued that successful environ- mental conservation depends upon the involvement and E-mail address: brian.king@mail.utexas.edu