Environment and Natural Resource Conservation and Management in Mozambique

Chapter 8. Unlocking the Crisis: New Directions for Conservation in Mozambique

183 Chapter 8 Unlocking the Crisis: New Directions for Conservation in Mozambique Introduction Conservation has generated and continues to generate vigorous debate about how the environment and natural resources as we know them should be used while at the same time benefitting us. From the researches I carried out in Mozambique as demonstrated in the essays throughout this book, it has emerged that [sustainable] conservation is impossible as long as the rural people who are both users (or at least live near natural resources such as forests, wildlife, fisheries, and most important resource arable land) and caretakers lack knowledge of sustainability and sustainable development. To emphasize this point, in chapter seven of this book, I have argued that over-exploitation or poor extraction and mismanagement of ‘common properties/resources’ have far reaching consequences to the immediate/local communities, the nation and also to the global world. While this anticipation of the effects of overexploitation and mismanagement of the environment and natural resources may seem rather harsh and unsympathetic especially to community-based natural resource management enthusiasts, it is nevertheless a point that needs to be seriously considered by conservationists/environmentalists the world over. Also, the point is a widely shared perception. In his paper, “Small-scale mining and alluvial gold panning within the Zambezi Basin: An ecological time-bomb and a tinderbox for future conflicts among riparian states”, Shoko1 , 184 for example, explores the negative impacts of poor extraction of the resource mineral, gold, in the Zambezi basin, to the local communities, the natural environment and other users along the Zambezi river. In another study, De Georges and Reilly2 noted with concern that due to poor management of resource, wildlife, during 1999/2000 farm invasions in Zimbabwe, there was a 50% loss in wildlife numbers, a 65% loss of tourism, and a loss of up to 90% of safari hunting on commercial farms3 from poaching and habitat destruction. As estimated by Unti,4 by 2007 there was an 80% decline in wildlife in conservancies and game farms, and 60% in national Parks due to mismanagement of resource, wildlife during the farm invasion grip in Zimbabwe. Heath also estimates that there were over 1000 game ranches prior to the radical land reform, in 2006 reduced to about four functional conservancies of 120 properties plus an additional 60 game ranches scattered around the country.5 There is, therefore, a growing consensus at least in some academic circles that poor extraction/utilization of resources is bad news to natural resource personnel and all concerned parties, especially in developing economies such as Mozambique where these resources are a backbone of the national economies. Yet, even though this is a point that can be easily embraced by many people, conservation has remained a ‘hot’ issue across the globe. A glimpse at the literature on conservation in the last two or so decades proves that the subject of conservation has increasingly become topical across the globe. Example of such literature includes, among others, the following books: Beyond sacred forest- Complicating conservation in Southern Asia (2011), Communities and conservation: Histories and politics of community-based natural resource management (2005), Tropical forest conservation: An economic assessment of the alternatives in Latin 185 America (1998), and Conservation biology: The theory and practice of nature conservation, preservation and management (1992). All these texts, in one way or another, show that the advantage of the environment and natural resources over-exploitation enjoyed by the few (those who directly benefit the exercise) come at a heavy price, especially to the poor who in most cases pay the price. Bearing this in mind, the essays that make up this volume are in good company in so far as all of them emphasize the need for active participation of all stakeholders in issues environment and resource conservation and management in Mozambique and beyond. While the essays in this book examine different issues and uses different case studies, the fact remains that all of them make a clarion call to sustainable utilization of resources, and to active participation of all actors in the conservation and management of the environment and resources especially the rural communities. Yet while active participation of ‘local’ members is emphasized, control by the government through responsible ministries remains critical to ensure sustainable utilization of resources. To emphasize this point, different case studies across Mozambique have been employed in this book to demonstrate how lack of government commitment or its...