Customer Reviews

Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park

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Recommended for college-level students of ecology and anthropology alike is Christine J. Walley's Rough Waters: Nature And Development In An East African Marine Park. While Walley's topic may seem narrow initially, Rough Waters examines important struggles over access to and use of natural resources, using the Mafia Island Marine Park in Tanzania as a study reflective of world concerns and issues. Walley is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT: her story of a park which became the center of political conflict during its creation in the mid-1990s holds wide-reaching implications for world ecology issues.

As a graduate student conducting ecological research in Tanzania, I was very motivated to read this book. I work in a different region of Tanzania, but the insights into some of the bureaucratic runaround and cultural perspectives were valuable for me. I believe the book is also valuable for students and professionals in the field of conservation/ecotourism/participatory/community development initiatives. The devil really is in the details, as Walley describes the ways in which the marine park failed to meet many of its goals and expectations for all parties involved.

I've given it four starts because this book could have used more editing in the transition from dissertation to book. In many places it still reads like a dissertation. I also found the writing style, especially in the first chapter, to be tiresome. It took me weeks to get through the first chapter. I think the first chapter was most difficult because of the writing style and the introduction of many, many important characters. If you're hung up on the first chapter, try skipping to the next and go back to chapter one if you need a refresher on the roles of different players. You do need to understand all of the players, though, and Walley has done an impressive job of describing in detail why and how their relationships resulted in less than ideal outcomes.

All in all, I'm glad I found this book and read it. In spite of my training as an ecologist with an interest in conservation, I've never read anything like this before. It is an outstanding example of why policies and projects need to consider historic, economic, social, and political contexts in addition to ecological ones. I have recommended it to several people already.