Access to natural resources has changed over the years in Zimbabwe. At least three broad periods of biodiversity conservation, utilisation, and access can be identified in the country, namely, the precolonial, colonial, and postindependence periods. This paper reviews the relationships between human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in the rural areas of Zimbabwe during these periods and is informed by an extensive review of the relevant literature. A combination of historical narrative, thematic, and content analysis was used in analysing the various documents into meaningful information addressing the objective of the study. Traditional societies in precolonial Zimbabwe had access to abundant natural resources. However, access to these resources was not uncontrolled, but was limited by traditional beliefs, taboos, and customs enforced through community leadership structures. The advent of colonialism in the late 19th century dispossessed indigenous African communities of natural resources through command-type conservation legislation. At independence in 1980, the new majority government sought to redress the natural resource ownership imbalances created during colonialism, culminating in some significant measure of devolution in natural resource management to local communities in the late 1980s, though such devolution has been criticised for being incomplete. An accelerated land reform exercise since the year 2000 has adversely affected biodiversity conservation activities in the country, including the conservation-related livelihood benefits derived from protected areas. The review paper highlights the need for a more complete devolution of natural resource ownership and management down to the grassroots levels in the communal areas, if social and ecological sustainability is to be fully realised in these areas. On the other hand, the disruption of conservation activities in the country due to the ill-planned accelerated land reform exercise that has demarcated land for arable farming in some of the protected areas should be held in check as a matter of urgency.
Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines biodiversity as: The variability among living organisms from all sources, including among others, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems [
Since time immemorial, biodiversity has been central to human survival [
However, in spite of the advances in agriculture and technology highlighted above, people around the world still rely on biological resources in the wild to meet their various needs [
The continued demand for natural living resources is increasingly threatening these resources with overexploitation and extinction, culminating in calls to conserve the world’s biological diversity so as to ensure their sustainable use. The need for the sustainable utilisation of biodiversity has resulted in the creation of various forms of protected areas across the globe. Linkages between biodiversity conservation and livelihoods were recognised in the 1970s and early 1980s culminating in the formulation of the World Conservation Strategy, which highlighted the finiteness of natural resources and emphasised the need for ensuring their sustainable use [
There has, however, been some fierce debate among researchers on the nature and extent of the links between biodiversity conservation and livelihoods. Scholars like Lockwood et al. [
Access to, and use of, natural resources has changed over the years in Zimbabwe. At least three broad periods of natural resource conservation and utilisation can be identified in the country, namely, the precolonial period, the colonial period, and the postindependence period [
Perhaps an important question to ask is why bother about the history and evolution of biodiversity conservation in relation to rural livelihoods in Zimbabwe. It is generally believed that a peep into the past is likely to enhance our understanding of current and possible future events, phenomena, and occurrences [
The aforementioned point makes a lot of sense particularly if one considers that biodiversity conservation approaches are constantly changing and evolving in order to establish their relevance at any given time in history. A historical perspective will therefore show how things have been done in the past, the reasons for such actions, and the resultant consequences. This may help in avoiding past mistakes, thereby guiding current (and future) courses of action towards better outcomes. The objective of the study is to assess the linkage between biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods in the rural areas of Zimbabwe and adopts a historical perspective covering the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial time periods. While previous authors have written on the history of biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods in Zimbabwe, this particular research adopts a more-than-just-story-telling perspective and attempts to add more value to these previous researches by coming up with policy implications on the biodiversity conservation livelihood nexus in Zimbabwe.
This review paper is informed by an extensive documentary review of literature on biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe in relation to rural livelihoods using a historical perspective. The documentary review, which included relevant policies, laws, and programmes, involved careful selection of documents so as to give a balanced and accurate view regarding the evolution of biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe from the precolonial, colonial, to the postcolonial periods and the impacts on biodiversity-dependent rural livelihoods. Government ministries and departments and organisations involved with conservation-livelihood activities in the country were among the various organisations that were approached for the collection of documentary information.
The Internet was also very crucial in accessing relevant published and unpublished secondary documents including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and academic theses using academic literature search engines such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct among others [
A combination of historical narrative, thematic, and content analysis was employed in reviewing the documentary sources of information gathered. This enabled the sorting of the large volumes of documentary data into focused and meaningful information useful in addressing the objective of the research. The three historical periods (precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial) naturally became the themes into which gathered documentary data were sorted and analysed, guided by the research objective.
The people who settled in what is now Zimbabwe came into the area in the later Iron Age around AD 1000 [
Traditional societies in precolonial Zimbabwe also enforced wildlife conservation by discouraging indiscriminate killing of animals and birds. It was believed that wanton killing of wildlife was punishable by the spirits and control mechanisms were found in traditional taboos, totems, and customs [
There were also taboos for protecting rare or endangered animal species under immediate threat from extinction such as the python, the pangolin, and certain rare fish species [
There were also some traditional taboos restricting the cutting and using of certain types of vegetation. For example, indigenous fruit trees such as Muzhanje (
The above and other traditional taboos and customs enabled the people in precolonial Zimbabwe to live in harmony with nature by maintaining a healthy balance between them and their environment. These people were not only close to but part of nature, acknowledging that their very existence depended on it [
The advent of colonialism in the last decade of the 19th century in Zimbabwe severely disrupted the harmony and close ties that had existed between the indigenous people and nature [
The newly established colonial administration soon introduced protective and command type natural resource and wildlife conservation legislation in order to preserve once plentiful wildlife populations which had been severely decimated by the great rinderpest epidemic of 1896-1897 combined with exploitation by slave traders, hunter explorers, prospectors, and adventurers [
The Game Law Amendment Ordinance was replaced by the 1929 Game and Fish Preservation Act which gave the governor of colonial Zimbabwe sweeping powers to control the exploitation of wildlife [
While the above laws resulted in the recovery of wildlife populations, such population increases also threatened human settlement and commercial cattle ranching by competing for grazing and harbouring pests and diseases [
Perhaps the most influential land use planning and administrative intervention that disposed and alienated indigenous people in colonial Zimbabwe from the natural resources they had always enjoyed was the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 [
Legislative controls were also established so as to govern use of natural resources in the native reserves or communal areas. The 1928 Native Reserves Forest Produce Act restricted access to forest products for native reserve residents to own use only [
The period 1960 to 1980 witnessed some major changes in the perception of wildlife in colonial Zimbabwe [
The Parks and Wildlife Act, however, did not confer ownership of wildlife on landowners. The predominant legal code in southern Africa is Roman Dutch Law where the legal status of wildlife is
The Parks and Wildlife Act laid the foundation for the initial and subsequent development of the wildlife industry in Zimbabwe. According to Bond and Cumming [
Unfortunately, the appropriate authority for managing and utilising wildlife conferred to private landowners through the Parks and Wildlife Act was not extended to the communal areas [
Perhaps, the only major attempt towards allowing indigenous Africans in the communal lands to use and benefit from natural resources during colonialism was the Wildlife Industries New Development for All (WINDFALL) project in the late 1970s [
The colonial period in Zimbabwe thus resulted in the loss of access to natural resources by indigenous African communities who had depended on these for centuries for their sustenance. These resources were now under the control of white settlers through “accumulation by displacement.” Natural resources in the white-owned areas were largely underutilised, while overcrowding in the communal areas, coupled with high poverty levels and taxation, resulted in overexploitation of resources in spite of the various resource access and use restrictions that were imposed. Colonialism also disrupted the sustainable traditional natural resource management and utilisation institutions that the indigenous Africans had developed over a long period of time. Additionally, settler actions such as the decimation of large numbers of wild animals considered as pests and the opening up of large tracts of land for agriculture, mining, and settlement set the foundation for the socioeconomic and ecological challenges the country is facing today.
This section explores natural resource access and use after independence in Zimbabwe. In particular, it looks at wildlife conservation and use on private and communal lands and the impact of the fast-track land reform on biodiversity conservation and livelihoods.
The passing of the Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975, which devolved appropriate authority over wildlife to landowners, laid the foundation for private wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe. While the government remains responsible for wildlife within the Parks and Wildlife Estate, wildlife conservation has increasingly been transferred to the private sector since the 1970s through policies that encourage the devolution of authority and responsibility for wildlife to the landholder, coupled with the definition of wildlife as an economic resource [
Though the roots of private wildlife ranching in Zimbabwe can be traced back to the 1970s, its real growth and establishment was experienced after independence particularly in the 1980s up to the late 1990s. While security of tenure, which remained guaranteed after independence through the Lancaster House Agreement, was a necessary condition for the management of wildlife by farms in the large-scale commercial farming sector, it was not a sufficient factor for the successful establishment of the wildlife industry [
In addition, a research programme in the 1980s and 1990s coordinated by the WWF on multispecies systems of animal production across the country revealed highly favourable comparisons of the wildlife industry’s prospects with those of beef production [
The rapid growth and establishment of the private conservation sector, particularly after independence, was an important development for the Parks and Wildlife Department for both economic and political reasons [
The development of private conservancies and game ranching in the large-scale commercial farming sector was, however, criticised for perpetuating the existing unequal distribution of land and economic power [
The expiry of the Lancaster House Agreement in 1990, and the subsequent enactment of the Land Acquisition Act in 1992, presented a major threat to wildlife ranches and conservancies as government could now easily and compulsorily acquire any land for resettlement [
In response to the growing threat to their survival, game ranchers attempted various survival strategies. Recognising that failure to indigenise would ultimately threaten their long-term survival, the white commercial wildlife ranchers tried to attract black entrepreneurs into their ventures [
So, prior to the fast-track land reform programme in 2000, game farms and conservancies as a conservation strategy were viewed by many in government as a hangover from the colonial period perpetuating a racially unequal distribution of land and resources. Despite the above controversies surrounding private wildlife ranching in Zimbabwe, it is clear that a switch to wildlife farming proved to be quite successful both as a profitable form of land use and as a tool for the effective conservation of wildlife resources in the country. The neighbour outreach schemes by private conservancies have also relatively contributed to livelihood enhancement for communities bordering these protected areas.
In parallel with the politically controversial development of game ranching on large-scale commercial farms, there have been attempts by the state, since colonial times, to disburse wildlife revenue and devolve authority to local communities in the communal areas [
The concept of CAMPFIRE has its origins in the 1970s with WINDFALL that tried to emulate successes with the use of wildlife on large-scale commercial farms [
The legal mechanism through which CAMPFIRE now operates was the granting of appropriate authority to District Councils through the amendment of the Parks and Wildlife Act (1975) in 1982 [
The CAMPFIRE programme has realised several remarkable achievements since its inception in 1989. Economically, total annual income from safari hunting increased rapidly from US$350 000 in 1989 to US$2 million in 2001 [
Another important indicator of the economic success of CAMPFIRE has been the gross annual benefit for communities in CAMPFIRE areas [
The CAMPFIRE programme has also immensely contributed to the conservation of biodiversity in Zimbabwe [
Despite its achievements, CAMPFIRE has also been criticised on a number of areas. The main criticism of CAMPFIRE has been its failure to devolve appropriate authority to subdistrict levels. The CAMPFIRE concept was founded on the principles embodied in the 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act that had devolved authority over wildlife to large-scale freehold commercial farmers [
However, the implementation of CAMPFIRE saw a number of compromises being made, with appropriate authority for the formal control over wildlife eventually being devolved to RDCs rather than to subdistrict local communities as had originally been envisaged [
The recentralisation of powers and revenue to the RDC level was also partly as a result of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) which resulted in budget cuts for all government departments [
However, the communities in which CAMPFIRE is taking place are by no means homogenous. One of the challenges to the CAMPFIRE programme has been the emergence of some elites within the local communities participating in CAMPFIRE, desiring to appropriate to themselves some of the financial and other benefits accruing to the communities. For example, chairpersons and committee members of local CAMPFIRE committees have reportedly abused accrued CAMPFIRE revenues in some areas while, in other cases, the traditional leadership has reportedly taken over control of a supposedly community project [
Zimbabwe has undergone significant and far-reaching political, economic, ecological, and social upheavals since adopting the accelerated land reform exercise in 2000, which has seen the country descending into a state of protracted crisis [
As a recap, it is important to note that before the fast-track land reform programme in 2000, private wildlife conservation had become well established in Zimbabwe. However, as shown earlier, the state viewed the wildlife sector with suspicion and argued that wildlife production, which requires large blocks of contiguous land, was incompatible with land reform and tended to perpetuate colonial land imbalances. With the coming of the accelerated land reform in 2000, the private wildlife sector was certainly not spared. Records indicate that 655 game farms and conservancies were acquired (wholly or partially) for resettlement during the fast-track land reform period [
While there is generally a dearth of information on the current status of wildlife on the game farms and conservancies, unconfirmed reports indicate that species populations declined by between 30% and 80%, mainly as a result of inadequate supplementary provisions such as water and feeds and illegal off-take and inadequate security on those acquired farms and conservancies where the wildlife land use system was maintained [
The fast-track land reform process has also had several important impacts on CAMPFIRE. Firstly, the effective destruction of institutions for the control of land and natural resources in the large-scale commercial farming sector has also been mirrored in the communal farming sector, severely undermining some of the evolving institutions for the control and management of wildlife and wildlife habitat [
Perhaps one of the greatest impacts on CAMPFIRE, of the fast-track land reform exercise and the ensuing political and economic turmoil, is related to the decline in tourist arrivals into the country owing to increased negative international publicity [
The economic decline following the fast-track land reform programme also saw many RDCs, as the appropriate authorities for wildlife management, holding on to most of the revenue generated through CAMPFIRE as they were now facing financial challenges [
While the area under wildlife was declining in Zimbabwe after the fast-track land reform programme, particularly for private conservancies and game ranches, the opposite was taking place in other countries in the region [
The paper has reviewed biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe in relation to livelihoods. The review has shown that biodiversity conservation in the country went through various periods, which also affected the livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent rural communities. The precolonial period represents an era when access to natural resources by indigenous populations was unlimited, with people and their natural environment coexisting in harmony. The colonial period was characterised by the appropriation of land by white settlers, culminating in racialised natural resource ownership and utilisation and loss of livelihoods by displaced indigenous peoples. The arrival of independence witnessed a rapid growth of private wildlife conservancies and also some devolution in natural resource management to local communities from central government through the CAMPFIRE programme.
The review paper highlights some important implications that are seminal to the attainment of a more sustainable biodiversity conservation and utilisation regime in Zimbabwe. Firstly, the paper has shown that ownership of resources is key to successful biodiversity conservation. A view now commonly held within conservation circles is that, when people own natural resources, either individually or as a clearly defined community, they are more likely to sustainably utilise those resources. It was partly due to this sense of ownership that sustainable resource conservation and use was realised during the precolonial period. Additionally, private landowners during the colonial period were also able to sustainably utilise resources on their lands. This is in clear contrast with the unsustainable natural resource management situation that subsequently developed in the communal areas during and after the colonial period, where the people had been dispossessed of the resources they had traditionally owned and exploited. While some measure of devolution in the ownership and management of natural resources in the communal areas has been effected through CAMPFIRE, the need for a more complete devolution of resource ownership and management is apparent, if CAMPFIRE is to be fully sustainable both socially and ecologically. Devolution has to reach the lowest possible levels truly representing local community institutions, with communities having full ownership, access, and management of the resources and the benefits thereof. It is sad to note that other countries in the region such as Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa that came much later than Zimbabwe in CBNRM initiatives have adopted more complete devolution pathways ahead of Zimbabwe, with such initiatives characterised by higher levels of socioeconomic and ecological sustainability for the communities involved. However, such devolution should also ensure that adequate measures are taken so as to avoid the taking over of community project benefits by emerging new elites at the grassroots level.
The ill-planned fast-track land reform exercise has, apparently, been detrimental to both biodiversity conservation activities and the livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent communities in Zimbabwe. This is especially when some of the country’s protected areas were wholly or partially converted into arable land, in spite of the unsuitability of such fragile and marginal areas to cultivation. Considering that such areas are only suitable for wildlife conservation, the people who have been settled in these areas for crop production should be moved to areas more suitable for arable farming [
The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.