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Communal Land Reform in Zambia: Governance, Livelihood and Conservation’ Is My Own Work

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Communal Land Reform in Zambia: Governance, Livelihood and Conservation’ Is My Own Work COMMUNAL LAND REFORM IN ZAMBIA: GOVERNANCE, LIVELIHOOD AND CONSERVATION Simon Christopher Metcalfe A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy (Land and Agrarian Studies) Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences University of the Western Cape (UWC) October 2006 DECLARATION I declare that ‘Communal Land Reform in Zambia: Governance, Livelihood and Conservation’ is my own work. All other sources, used or quoted, have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. This thesis has not been submitted for a degree at another university. Simon Metcalfe October 2006 Signature ………………………………………… Supervisor: Dr. Thembela Kepe (University of the Western Cape, South Africa) ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This MPhil thesis is presented rather late in my life, and after many years of working with rural communities and living in remote parts of southern Africa. I am especially grateful to communities in the Zambezi River environments, who have provided me with work, adventure and hospitality over the years. I was privileged to work with Campfire Collaborative Group for a decade: The Zimbabwe Trust, The World Wildlife Fund, The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (University of Zimbabwe), The Africa Resources Trust and The Campfire Association. Thanks to Professor Marshall Murphree (CASS) who taught me a lot and provided me with many writing opportunities. I am also indebted to Dr. David Cumming for pointing me in the direction of literature on the social- ecological scale issue, which provides a key theoretical basis for the paper on communal tenure and wildlife connectivity. Working with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) since 1999 enabled me to work with three new transfrontier conservation initiatives in southern Africa, and allowed me to collect data for this research. It also introduced me to Zambia, where the research is based. My AWF colleagues Nesbert Samu, Nyika Munodawafa and Patrica Jere were very helpful with my field work and in general. Thanks also to the Zambian community people, trust representatives and everyone else who gave me their time, especially Chief Mukuni. In 2005, I stopped my full-time employment with AWF and enrolled for an M.Phil. degree at the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of Western Cape. This led directly to the papers presented here. My thanks to the Director, Professor Ben Cousins, all the staff at PLAAS and especially my Supervisor, Dr. Thembela Kepe who provided a good mixture of advice, stimulation and pressure to keep me on target. Thanks to Thelma Fennie and Najma Mohamed at PLAAS for efficient and friendly administrative and logistic support. Finally, I am grateful to The Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) Scholarship for its core funding for this research, and to The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights whose financial support enabled me to work with my supervisor in Canada. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.................................................................................................................... .......................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... ..........iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................iv PREFACE.....................................................................................................................................................vi Rationale...................................................................................................................................................vi Research Design.....................................................................................................................................viii CHIEF, STATE AND COMMUNITY: MANAGING COMMERCIAL ACCESS TO COMMUNAL LAND IN ZAMBIA .......................................................................... 1 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................2 ZAMBIA’S COMMUNAL LAND POLICY CONTEXT..........................................................................6 Governance of communal land in Zambia .............................................................................................6 Investment and communal land in Zambia............................................................................................8 Wildlife policy and communal land.......................................................................................................10 Forest policy and communal land .........................................................................................................11 Lack of integrated land and natural resources policy, legislation and institutions...........................12 THE MUKUNI AND SEKUTE CHIEFDOMS ........................................................................................13 Shared background ................................................................................................................................13 THE SEKUTE CHIEFDOM ......................................................................................................................17 The Simonga area in Sekute Chiefdom.................................................................................................18 Sekute socio-economic and natural resource situational analysis ......................................................20 THE MUKUNI CHIEFDOM .....................................................................................................................23 The Unsung Area of Mukuni Chiefdom ...............................................................................................24 Mukuni socio-economic and natural resource situational analysis....................................................25 DISCUSSION...............................................................................................................................................28 Traditional and state authority .............................................................................................................28 Commercial property rights in communal areas.................................................................................29 Communal land reform and Community-Based Natural Resources Management..........................30 The agency of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals .........................................31 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................32 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................34 iv ELEPHANT CORRIDORS, COMMUNAL TENURE AND THE PROPOSED KAVANGO-ZAMBEZI TRANSFRONTIER CONSERVATION AREA ................ 42 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................43 KEY WORDS ...................................................................................................................... ........................43 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT......................................................................................................... ...45 Ecological scale and tenure ....................................................................................................................45 Controversy in southern Africa’s transboundary discourse...............................................................46 Conservation knowledge and institutional memory ............................................................................47 THE KAVANGO-ZAMBEZI TRANSFRONTIER CONSERVATION AREA....................................49 Background to the Kavango-Zambezi (KaZa) TFCA .........................................................................49 Elephant movement in the Kavango-Zambezi (KaZa) TFCA............................................................51 The role of Zambian traditional institutions in land and natural resource management................53 Communal land tenure and wildlife tenure..........................................................................................54 Communal land tenure in relation to forest tenure.............................................................................56 The innovation of chiefdom level community development trusts .....................................................57 The Inyambo Chiefdom and the Barotse Royal Establishment..........................................................58 The Sekute, Mukuni and Musokotwane Chiefdoms............................................................................61 TENURE REFORM AND ELEPHANT CORRIDORS IN ZAMBIA ...................................................63 Social-ecological scale, tenure and wildlife corridors ..........................................................................63 Transboundary scale and diminished community ‘voice’...................................................................66 Regional institutional memory ..............................................................................................................67 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................69
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