Locally-evolved knowledge in livestock and range management systems in southern Zimbabwe's drylands, a study of pastoral communities in beitbridge district

Abstract

Locally-evolved knowledge systems and their institutions are central to the sustenance of pastoral systems in many parts of the African drylands. Climatic conditions in these environments are unpredictable, highly variable and so may be described as harsh. Pastoralism has evolved as the mainstay of the livelihood of the people in these regions. Adaptive resource management strategies have evolved a resilient pastoral production system which is sustained through a high level of flexibility and innovation. However, one major problem facing many development initiatives in these regions is that the nature, extend and quality of these ecologically and culturally specific innovations are largely unknown outside the communities themselves, and particularly among those agencies which have been given responsibility for developing these areas.

In the past, these knowledge systems were largely ignored in the policy formulation, planning and implementation processes by governments and donor agencies working in pastoral regions. These knowledge systems were sometimes viewed by development professionals as mainly superstition and anthropological myths. Although these perceptions have changed over the last two decades and in spite of the impressive array of studies on pastoral resources management, particularly from the eastern and western African regions, a major challenge facing researchers and development practitioners working in this field is the divergent analytical frameworks for analyzing these systems. Few studies have offered comprehensive, integrated frameworks for analyzing pastoral management systems. This study draws on several social and physical science fields to create a dynamic actor-oriented rule systems framework for analyzing pastoral systems. In that respect, the study offers opportunities for application beyond the study area.

Through a largely phenomenological and qualitative approach, the role of locally-evolved knowledge systems in pastoral resource management and development is explored in the Communal Areas of Beitbridge District of Zimbabwe. However, more objective methods such as socio-economic survey and mapping were also used to complement the qualitative methods, and to enable triangulation and validation of field data.

The social organisation of the pastoral system in the study area, the decision-making processes, and the institutional relations governing the production system and relations were examined at two conceptual levels, namely, the homestead and the wider community. The homestead rather than the household was the primary focus of coping and adaptive strategies (cooperation, sharing , reciprocity and mobility) among residents of the area. It was also the locus of most decision-making processes, and economic and social activities. In that respect, marriage and child fostering were important elements of the risk-sharing strategies among residents of the area. The pastoral system was centred around cooperation among resource users at homestead and community levels, and based on the mobility of livestock herds and people within and outside their designated area in search of food, water and improved livelihoods. While the pastoral system was largely controlled by men women and children played a significant role in the management system.

At the community level, the headman's institution was central t the sustainable management of grazing resources in the area. The traditional informal rule system had widespread legitimacy among residents of the rea. Many social control measures were used to enforce the traditional rule systems, and often seemed to perform better than the government-imposed system of administration. Their success was largely dependent on the headman and his institutions for administration of the area under his control. The headman's area boundaries were found to be more useful administrative units in the study area than the village-head (sabhuku)'s rea as is widely advocated in Zimbabwean government publications.

This study concluded that the basic ingredients for reforming the administration of livestock development in regions of Zimbabwe that have similar conditions to the Beitbridge District environment were in place at community levels. What is required is a change of structure and attitude of agencies working in these areas, and more commitment by development agents towards the development of these peripheral regions of the country. The focus of these changes should be the district administration structure which should be reformed in such a way as to create a basis for facilitating vertical linkages between traditional (community level) institutions with district, regional and supra-regional institutions responsible for Communal Area development. A framework to facilitate the reform process is proposed and recommended for adoption by the responsible agencies. Therefore, this research has immediate implications for reforming livestock development policies and programs in the arid and semi-arid Communal Areas of Zimbabwe.