Evaluating holistic management in Hwange communal lands, Zimbabwe : an actor-oriented livelihood approach, incorporating everyday politics and resistance

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Rangelands in the semi-arid and arid regions of the world support livelihoods through their provision of multiple goods and services. Livestock production, for example, occurs in rangelands both as extensive ranching under freehold tenure and as collective ranching under communal tenure systems. However, the sustainability of rangelands is threatened and has been a major concern this century, leading to a variety of interventions. Holistic management (HM) is one such example, designed by its proponents as a panacea to halt degradation and, recently, climate change effects in the rangelands of Africa and beyond. HM has been implemented in the Hwange Communal Lands (HCLs) of Zimbabwe since 2010. In principle, the programme is aimed at restoring degraded watersheds and croplands through utilising properly managed livestock. To achieve this, two principles are promoted under HM, namely (i) holistic planned grazing (HPG) and (ii) animal impaction of crop fields. However, the effects of HM on the livelihoods of its beneficiaries currently are poorly understood.In order to address this lacuna, this study aimed to determine both the intended and unintended effects of a community-based land restoration programme called Holistic Land and Livestock Management (HLLM) in the HCLs of Zimbabwe on the livelihoods of its beneficiaries through a conceptual framework that combined an actor-oriented livelihoods approach with concepts of everyday politics and resistance. This was done by exploring the impact of HLLM on the six types of farmers' assets, adoption patterns, farmers' reactions to the introduction of HLLM, and challenges preventing farmers from adopting HLLM. Case studies employing a qualitative and exploratory research design were undertaken in three communities that were selected purposively from a total of 18 communities in which the HLLM programme had been promoted by the Africa Centre for Holistic Management (ACHM) in order to discover different perspectives on the effects of the programme on the livelihoods of its beneficiaries. The study employed qualitative Participatory Rural Appraisal tools, focus group discussions, participant observation, document analysis, and key informant and semi-structured interviews. These lines of enquiry enabled triangulation and cross-checking of information to enhance the reliability and validity of the research findings.The study showed that adoption levels were disappointingly low across all the study sites. Several challenges, including livestock diseases, predation, cultural stigma, labour constraints and witchcraft fears, were among the barriers explaining the low rate of adoption in the HCLs. The findings reveal that the farmers were concerned more with immediate problems, especially lack of water, than with land degradation, which is the primary focus of HLLM. Thus the farmers responded by complying, accommodating and covertly resisting the ACHM's efforts to implement HLLM in order to suit their needs, using creative everyday politics and resistance. The study concludes that, although HLLM is required in such semi-arid environments, it is not sufficient to sustain rural livelihoods in its current state. While the main focus of HLLM is to improve the natural capital (i.e. restoring degraded watersheds), it should be complemented by and aligned with the farmers' other development priorities, especially those relating to water

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University