Membership in Common Property Regimes A Case Study of Guruve, Binga, Tsholotsho and Bulilimamangwe CAMPFIRE Programmes.

Abstract

Community based resource management programmes are deemed to work best in an environment in which the groups are small in size and have face to face interaction. The argument is that benefits from natural resource management are significant when they are confined to a small group. Further, it is argued that rules governing natural resource management work best in an environment in which membership is localized and demographically small. This research examines a community-based programme, CAMPFIRE2, and shows that in certain instances local people do support increases in community membership. The research further argues that those implementing CAMPFIRE must intensify their efforts to make sure that these communities do not increase their membership, as evidence has shown that this can adversely affect the programme.