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Anarchy in Zimbabwe’s wetlands: any way out?

Should farming be allowed in Zimbabwe’s wetlands? The wetlands - or vleis - are used by smallholders for dry season vegetable production and economic returns are high. Colonial administrators cited the risk of environmental degradation to prevent farmers from using the vleis. Today, the government and scientists disagree on the desirability of maintaining the unpopular, and increasingly flouted, prohibition on their use.

A report from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) looks at the results of an action-research programme to analyse the factors shaping policy and the strategies used by local farmers in securing access to the vleis.

Despite the continuing ban on cultivation, international donors and NGOs have supported expansion of vleis cultivation. NGO-funded research, much of it clandestine, has improved understanding of water harvesting, erosion, and waterlogging and the use of organic farming methods. Local farmers are keen to adopt new techniques but reluctant to invest time and money when there is an ever-present threat of punishment.

Cultivation in the vleis is as much a political as an agricultural-environmental issue. Workshops and interviews brought together representatives of local farmers, district government, NGOs, kraal heads, the Natural Resources Board (NRB) and agricultural extension services, each with attitudes and official positions to defend. When a mock parliamentary debate was organised, passions ran high.

Key findings highlighted in the study include:

Structural adjustment has impoverished urban Zimbabweans and forced many to the countryside where, lacking land, they try to intensively cultivate vleis without respecting rules imposed by the traditional leadership and without any long-term commitment to conservation.
NRB patrols and arrests have lessened in recent years as operational budgets have been cut and some officials sympathise with unemployed landless families who have no other livelihood option.
The strong conviction that local people should be entitled to cultivate vleis and deep frustration that independence has not restored this right.
While some high-ranking officials want to return to strong state control over the vleis, this is opposed by many extension agents who have been won over by scientific arguments that the vleis can be sustainably cultivated.
In order to win local support, cadres of the ruling ZANU-PF party have sometimes stymied NRB efforts at prohibition.

The current chaos is symptomatic of the crisis of communal leadership in Zimbabwe. Rural institutions have little real legitimacy and traditional leaders are not always acknowledged or respected. Amidst this confusion, what options are open to policymakers? The report suggests:

Politicians must stop regarding farmers as environmental vandals who need to be contained.
Farmers, extension agents and NGOs need to coordinate advocacy to get the ban lifted.
State conservation agents must shed their role as policemen and cultivate trust with local communities using the vleis.
Scaling up model projects in which farmers, soil scientists and water conservation experts have worked together to blend local knowledge with external technical advice.

Source(s):
‘Policies on the cultivation of vleis in Zimbabwe and local resistance to their enforcement’ by Billy B. Mukamuri and Terence Mavedzenge, Managing Africa’s Soils No. 14, International Institute for Environment and Development, April 2000 Full document.

Funded by: INCO-DEV Programme, EU

id21 Research Highlight: 20 June 2001

Further Information:
Billy B. Mukamuri
Rural Research and Development Consultants
P. O. Box 734
Ruwa
Zimbabwe

Nicole Kenton
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)171 388 2117
Fax: +44 (0)171 388 2826
Contact the contributor: Nicole.Kenton@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Unless stated otherwise articles may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged.

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