Conflict And Conflict Resolution In The Management Of Miombo Woodlands: Three Case Studies of Miombo Woodlands in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of conflict and conflict resolution over the use of miombo woodlands in three study sites in Zimbabwe, namely Nyamayaro, Mafungabusi and Romwe. The data was collected mainly through the participatory rural appraisal technique, specifically using group discussions and interviews with key informants as the research tools. Conflict is generally conceptualised in literature as a discourse of negotiating rights and obligations in natural resources. Insights from the three case studies indicate that the ethnic friction, contest over boundaries, institutional conflict, intergenerational conflict and conflict over token co-management that characterised the management and use of miombo woodlands was more than a discourse of negotiating rights and obligations. It was a conflict fuelled by people’s struggle to secure access to resources that were of core-significance for survival in a rural economy, such as land, timber and thatch-grass for construction, pasture and others. The issue of rights did not seem to matter to a people who were in dire need for particular resources. In essence, what mattered most was gaining access to resources that held a key to rural livelihood. Therefore, conflict resolution depended on either adaptive management of miombo woodlands to accommodate the survival imperatives in a rural economy or providing people with alternative forms of livelihood. Key Terms: institutional conflict, ethnic friction, intergenerational conflict, contested boundaries, co-management problems, rural livelihood, adaptive management