The Governance of Natural Resource Management in Zimbabwe: Unravelling the Relationships between Conservation and Development

Zimbabwe’s national community-based natural resource management initiative, the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), is a multi-level programme implemented in a complex system. CAMPFIRE aimed to change the governance of wildlife, seeking to integrate local communities into the wildlife and natural resource management governance system. This thesis aims to advance understanding of CAMPFIRE’s impacts and outcomes through a multilevel assessment of its governing processes and structures. The thesis uses data collected through multiple qualitative methods from four study villages to assess the rural livelihood impacts of the programme and to document the local governance structure that has evolved around CAMPFIRE projects. It then places these sub-national assessments within the national governing context in which CAMPFIRE operates. In bringing together the concepts of environmental entitlements and sustainable livelihoods, with a qualitative research approach, this thesis provides unique insights into the conceptual underpinnings and practical implementations of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). Produced through thematic and content coding analysis, the findings from CAMPFIRE are relevant to other natural resource management initiatives based on the community-based approach. The findings point to a deep set lack of good governance within the Zimbabwean natural resource management system which renders devolutionary programmes inappropriate to context. For devolutionary programmes to function in such a system, this thesis argues that there needs to be a transformation in the governance of natural resource management away from the expected supplied devolution to demanded devolution. This requires more focus on rural socio-economic and political development to achieve a suitable level of capacity for conservation to be successfully adopted. The thesis puts forward recommendations on how this transformation of governance can be achieved and the role CBNRM projects can play in this. Lessons can be learnt for enhancing the participatory natural resource management movement in practice.