Abstract:
The article explores theoretically the juxtaposition of local stories about landscape with institutional
arrangements and exclusionary practices around a conservation area in South Africa. The Masebe
Nature Reserve is used as a case study. The article argues that the institutional arrangements in which the
nature reserve is currently positioned are too static, and consequently exclusionary, in their
demarcation of boundaries. This stifles local communities’ sense of belonging to these landscapes.
Hence, they strongly resent and feel alienated by the nature reserve. Their opposition and alienation
often manifests in poaching. The empirical material is based on how local people living adjacent to
the Masebe Nature Reserve have historically named and interpreted the area’s impressive sandstone
mountains, in the process creating a sense of belonging. Juxtaposing this mostly tranquil cultural
reading of the landscape to the institutional practices of boundary demarcation gives the analysis an
immediate critical edge regarding issues of social justice
