ABSTRACT
The displacement of rural people, whether for conservation or for development, demonstrates how policy processes and decision-makers operating beyond the boundaries of a landscape can dramatically affect the lives of its residents. Displacement occurs not only when people are forced to move but also when people are excluded from their previous economic activities (Brockington and Igoe, 2006), such as farming. Displacement can also be a side effect of landscape management, when new protected areas are established or old ones extended. In addition, interventions justified by development goals, such as improved access to infrastructure, condition the operations and choices available to those seeking to improve natural resource management at landscape level. Displacement is essentially a disproportionate exercise of power that overrides local systems, tenure and aspirations in favour of the objectives of those at higher levels of government and sometimes beyond, as in the case of biodiversity conservation projects.
