This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Woodland transitions and rural livelihoods: an interdisciplinary case study of Wedza Mountain, Zimbabwe Rosemary Pritchard Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geosciences The University of Edinburgh August 2017 i ii Declaration The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own, except where indicated otherwise. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification. Rosemary Pritchard August 2017 iii iv Abstract Tropical woodlands play a key role in the livelihoods of rural communities in southern Africa, but exist in contexts of constant ecological and socioeconomic change. With research into tropical woodlands neglected compared to tropical forests, it is important to improve understanding of the consequences of tropical woodland change for rural wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the dynamic interactions between woodland change and rural livelihoods through an interdisciplinary case study of a miombo woodland landscape on and around Wedza Mountain, Zimbabwe. The thesis is organised into three parts addressing: (1) the patterns of land use intensity and provisioning ecosystem service availability around Wedza Mountain; (2) the importance of environmental resources in rural income portfolios and hazard coping strategies; and (3) the adequacy of ecosystem service literature in representing the environmental values of rural African communities. The first part of this thesis explores patterns of land use and woodland structure on the woodland cover gradient around Wedza Mountain. In Chapter 2 I characterise land use intensity in the six study villages using a new method of calculating human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) at the village scale. Use of this approach indicates that previous studies have underestimated land use intensity in African small-scale farming areas, with village-scale HANPP estimates in Wedza ranging from 48% to 113% of total potential annual NPP as compared to 18 to 38% in published studies. In Chapter 3 I combine woodland survey data with a quantitative ethnobotanical assessment of the use values of woody species and demonstrate that per-household availability of provisioning ecosystem services declines with declining relative tree cover. These findings also suggest that more deforested villages have reduced diversity of ethnospecies underlying service provision, with ramifications for service resilience and livelihood option values in response to future change. The focus of the second part of the thesis is on the role of woodland resources in rural livelihoods. In Chapter 4 I quantify the contribution of environmental income to the total income portfolios of 91 households and show that lower village woodland cover is not associated with reduced livelihood diversity, in part because a large proportion of environmental income is derived from degraded woodland or non-woodland environments. In Chapter 5 I assess the importance of environmental resources for coping with hazard exposures, drawing on recall of past exposure responses and a survey exercise weighting the elements of coping strategy portfolios in response to varying shock scenarios. Synthesis of these data sets indicates that environmental resources represent an important safety net in coping with interacting covariate and idiosyncratic hazard exposures. v The third part of the thesis consists of critical reflection, firstly on the adequacy of current ecosystem services research in southern Africa landscapes and secondly on this specific research project. In Chapter 6 I identify the value discourses which are most dominant across 356 peer-reviewed papers adopting an ecosystem services approach to miombo landscape research, and contrast these with the environmental values of study communities in Wedza District. Through this I show that the current ecosystem service literature is failing to represent rural African social and spiritual imaginaries of landscapes, with potentially serious consequences for the efficacy and equity of landscape management interventions. In Chapter 7 I examine some of the methodological and ethical challenges encountered during this research project through a discussion of the relationships between researcher, research assistant and respondents in an interdisciplinary field research context. Finally, in Chapter 8 I synthesise the key messages from the thesis, and conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for understanding of how future change will impact the resilience and vulnerability of savanna woodland socioecological systems. vi Lay Summary Communities in rural Africa have high dependence on resources such as firewood, medicinal plants and wild foods, and many of these resources are collected from tropical forests and woodlands. Many areas of woodland in Africa are changing because of collection of woodfuel and clearance for farming, and this has raised concerns that rural people will no longer be able to access the resources they need. The objective of this thesis is to explore how the livelihoods of local people interact with changes in woodlands in the small-scale farming communities around Wedza Mountain in central Zimbabwe. I firstly demonstrate that there is very high land use intensity in the study area, with humans appropriating more than half of all the plant biomass produced each year. Secondly, I show that villages with less woodland also have lower availability and diversity of the trees needed to provide key resources such as firewood, medicinal plants and fruits. However, I subsequently show that loss of woodland cover has had a less severe impact on local people than anticipated, as many of the resources people require can be found even in heavily disturbed woodlands or in other land cover types such as fields. I next explore the importance of natural resources such as gold and wild fruits for coping with shocks like droughts, and find that coping strategies based on natural resources are more important for poor households headed by widows and for households exposed to multiple simultaneous shocks. I finally discuss the broader set of values derived from the Wedza landscape by local people, and argue that the current failure of research literature to consider spiritual and historical landscape values is resulting in missed opportunities to engage communities in sustainable landscape management. vii viii Acknowledgements Writing a PhD thesis would not be possible without the support and guidance of a great many people. I have firstly been very lucky in my PhD supervisors. Casey Ryan has been a great source of advice and ideas throughout (as well as being infinitely patient with my tendency to rush off on tangents!) I am grateful to Isla Grundy for providing the opportunity to work in Zimbabwe, and for sharing her knowledge and insight into a fascinating country. I am also grateful to Dan van der Horst for his encouragement and for always making time for a discussion, and have really appreciated his different perspective on the research. The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Zimbabwe have been incredibly supportive, particularly Professor Tamuka Nhiwatiwa, with thanks also to Miriro Tarusikirwa for helping with my seemingly endless permit paperwork. I also appreciate the help provided by the Research Council of Zimbabwe, especially Matthew Nyaguze, and the National Herbarium of Zimbabwe. My thanks to the staff at Small World Lodge in Avondale, particularly Justin and Tawana, for providing a friendly place to stay in Harare, and to Lazarus, for being both a great driver and a great storyteller. I owe a huge debt to Nyaradzo Shayanewako (Amai Simba), my main research assistant and host in Wedza District. Her kindness, determination and sense of humour all contributed to making fieldwork an amazing experience. This debt extends to all the Shayanewako family: Charles (Baba Simba), Wadzenai and Tinotenda, who all made me so welcome in their home in Wedza, and Simba and Thamari in Harare. I am also grateful to Francisca Chiraya (Amai B), Tapiwa Betera (Baba Ephraim) and Pauline Dhliwayo for braving the rains and the mountain to help with tree surveys. This project would of course have been entirely impossible without the generosity and patience of local people in Wedza Communal Area, and without support from the District Administrator, Headman Mubaiwa, and the Sabhukus of the study villages. My sincere thanks and gratitude to them all – maita basa chaizvo, ne ndinoda kudzoka kuWedza manjemanje. I am also lucky to have a supportive research group in Edinburgh, and owe particular thanks to Iain McNicol for reading through this thesis, and to Hemanth Tripathi (master of silly voices and my PhD brother), who has been in this with me all the way. Thanks also to the folk of Crew Attic, especially Sophie Flack-Prain, Yaqing Gou and Kathleen Allen, who made me ix look forward to coming to the office even in fourth year, to Elsa Carla di Grandi for the many mountain walks, and to George Barker for being a wonderful flatmate. And I can’t not thank Beth Clark, Hope Barclay, Kate Smith and Iona Cowell, who are always there when most needed. Finally, my gratitude and love as always to my family, particularly my Dad Gary, Mum Jenny and sister Rachel. And of course Oliver, my absolute favourite tiny human, who always knows how to make people laugh.