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Community Rights, Conservation & Contested Land, edited by Fred Nelson, is a book that discusses the politics of natural resource governance in Africa. Summary of the Book Natural resource governance is essential to the results of biodiversity conservation efforts and to patterns of economic development, especially in resource-dependent rural populations. The institutional activities that outline natural resource governance are the aftermath of political processes, whereby several groups with often-divergent benefits negotiate for access and authority over resources. These political processes control the outcomes of resource governance improvement efforts, such as extensive attempts to devolve or decentralize greater tenure over land and resources to native communities. This book observes the intricacies of political dynamics of natural resource governance processes through a spectrum of comparative case studies across east and southern Africa. Drawing from both academics and field experts working across the region, the cases include both local and national settings, and delve into issues like land rights, tourism development, participatory forest management, wildlife conservation, and the effects of climate change. About Fred Nelson Fred Nelson has served as a scholar and specialist on natural resource governance in East Africa for more than a decade. He has worked in the field with local communities in northern Tanzania to start more unbiased and useful resource governance arrangements. He has also studied the political economy of natural resource management across East and Southern Africa. Nelson’s insightful works have been published in journals like Development & Change, Conservation Biology, and Biodiversity Conservation.