Culture for sale? ‘Traditional’ Practices, Institutions and values as Commodity in Nature-based Tourism

The Maloti Drakenberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project between South Africa and Lesotho is a transfrontier conservation initiative that simultaneously aims at conserving biodiversity and fostering the economic development of the local population. This is to be attained via nature-based tourism activities. These, I argue, highlight certain practices, institutions and values of the local population while neglecting others, thereby reinventing them as part of a ‘traditional culture’ in the conservation context. Illustrated by two case studies I also argue that nature-based tourism reifies and commoditizes these elements of lifestyles by labeling them ‘traditional’, making them serve economic or environmental interests.