These relate to the adequacy of existing strategies in sustaining biodiversity and the extent to which these strategies themselves can be sustained. These concerns are particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is sharp debate about the relative importance of 'community' and 'protected area' approaches.

The seminar will discuss the challenge of institutional sustainability in African conservation, focusing on conflicts between conservation and other forms of land use, conflicts over the tenure of resources of conservation value, and the social construction of biodiversity.

About Bill Adams
Bill Adams is Reader in Conservation and Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, where he has been teaching since 1984. His work focuses on conservation and development, and he works mainly in Africa and the UK.

He has written about sustainable development (Green Development: environment and sustainability in the Third World, Routledge, London, second edition 2001), about Africa (Wasting the Rain: rivers, people and planning Africa (Earthscan, London, 1992; Mortimore. M. and Adams, W.M. (1999) Working the Sahel: environment and society in northern Nigeria, Routledge, London), and about conservation (Future Nature: a vision for conservation, Earthscan, London, 1996).

His recent work has addressed the sustainability of dryland agriculture in the Sahel, the relations between conservation and local people in Africa, and policy for common pool resource management in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and India.