Diffusing America’s “Effective Methods” to Africa

Keywords: national parks, protected areas, diffusion, Africa, US West
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

On August 16, 1965, a group of young African nationals studying at American universities assembled in Needles, Arizona to participate in the “African Student Conservation Training Program.” Begun in 1961 by the Interior Department, staged on its protected areas in the Pacific Northwest and Interior West, and run by the National Park Service, the three-week program was a Cold War effort to augment “future African leaders’” appreciation for their countries’ protected areas. Off to a shaky start, the first course had enrolled 10 students with none expressly concerned about conservation or protected areas, but by 1965 all 14 participants were interested in conservation with six of them majoring in environmental disciplines. This well-regarded program was an early co-effort by the National Park Service and its sibling agencies in Interior to horizontally diffuse American approaches to protected-areas management to nations across the world. The history of such spatial diffusion is a lively topic of discussion among conservation biologists, environmental historians, geographers, and political scientists. From where and when did global wildlife and protected-area policies emerge and diffuse? Why and how were they adopted and modified? Which policies were promoted and which were not? This presentation will be a contribution to these discussions as I examine the region that became a classroom and the “effective methods” highlighted in the curriculum. That is, which elements of America’s national parks and protected areas were emphasized to the students and which went unmentioned.