STRUCTURES WITHOUT PROCESSES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL DEFICIENCIES IN COMMUNITY BASED FOREST RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SEKE RESETTLEMENT SCHEME

Abstract

Community based natural resource management programmes had been adopted by many countries as a management approach that can bring better results in the sustainable resource management. This management regime represents a shift from centralised approaches which were previously employed. Zimbabwe is among the pioneers of this programme in the sub-Saharan Africa region. A lot has been done in an attempt to bring resource governance to the people. One of the projects that had registered remarkable success is the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). Many Rural District Councils are engaged in these projects; and nearly every council is running a CAMPFIRE project. However the same cannot be said of other conservation projects in rural and resettlement areas in the country. There is little success registered especially in the conservation of forest resources. Structures for community based natural resource management (CBNRM) are in place but there are defunct, which explains the uninvited resource degradation in rural areas. This paper seeks to delineate the factors underlying the structures' failure in delivery of effective democratisation of resource governance.