Abstract
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.
Highlights
Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines biodiversity as:e 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 [1].Since time immemorial, biodiversity has been central to human survival [2, 3]
An estimated 1.6 billion people around the world depend on forest resources for livelihoods, the majority of whom are located in the tropical regions in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) [5]
Conclusion and Recommendations e paper has reviewed biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe in relation to livelihoods. e review has shown that biodiversity conservation in the country went through various periods, which affected the livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent rural communities. e precolonial period represents an era when access to natural resources by indigenous populations was unlimited, with people and their natural environment coexisting in harmony. e 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. e arrival of independence witnessed a rapid growth of private wildlife conservancies and some devolution in natural resource management to local communities from central government through the CAMPFIRE programme
Summary
Article 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines biodiversity as:. e 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 [1]. 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 [8, 9]. Is paper reviews the relationship between local livelihoods and natural resource conservation ( biodiversity) in the rural areas of Zimbabwe during these three periods. E 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. E 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. A combination of historical narrative, thematic, and content analysis was employed in reviewing the documentary sources of information gathered. is enabled the sorting of the large volumes of documentary data into focused and meaningful information useful in addressing the objective of the research. e 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
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