Resource-based Conflict at the Local Level in a Changing National Environment: The Case of Zimbabwe’s Mafungautsi State Forest

Introduction

This contribution examines resource-based conflict at a microlevel in the context of the influence of broader socio-economic and political developments at the national level in Zimbabwe. It focuses specifically on the case of Mafungautsi State Forest, located in the Midlands province’s Gokwe South district. The forest’s decline began during the colonial period due to local dissatisfaction with the way it was administered without input from the people. Colonial top-down management style by the Forestry Commission (FC), the government agency mandated to oversee state forests in the country and to enforce the Forestry Act of 1948, yielded no direct benefits to local communities.¹ The FC criminalised hunting and harvesting of products such as broom and thatch grass, honey and wild fruits from the forest.² The forest’s decline accelerated at an unprecedented rate with its invasion by villagers spurred by the land invasions from 2000. The invasion rendered the FC incapable of executing its role as rampant state-sanctioned lawlessness gripped the country.³

This paper examines the historical grievances of local communities in relation to their removal from their ancestral land in the colonial period and their inability to access forest products for their day to day use. It also traces socio-economic and political developments at a national level and their impact on Mafungautsi forest and communities living on its margins, who had for a long time awaited an opportunity to return to their old forest home, as well as the outcomes of the invasion.

Context: Forests and Forest Uses in Developing Countries

Forests provide a wide range of social and economic benefits to many countries.⁴ These benefits include provision of food, fuel wood, medicines, and employment from processing and trade of forest products, and tourism (as game, a major tourist attraction and many of nature’s wonders are usually housed in forested landscapes). A great deal of literature shows that forests increasingly play an important role in national development, humanitarian and economic affairs, and trade politics.⁵ Studies have shown that in sub-Saharan Africa the AIDS pandemic has wrecked havoc by, among other factors, reducing the agricultural workforce in many countries and consequently affecting regional food supply in general and household food security in particular.⁶ There is a growing body of literature demonstrating that these impacts can be mitigated against by adaptation and implementation of sustainable forest policies. Forests thus contribute to household nutrition and health.⁷ Forests have always played an important role in the context of supplying wood energy in most of Africa’s rural areas and raw materials. Furniture-making industries, in particular, increasingly require this resource as urbanisation increases: hence the need to optimally manage woodlands and forests.⁸ Forest preservation has gained renewed emphasis as the world grapples with reducing global climate change.⁹

In spite of their economic benefits, forests are, however, associated with conflict in many parts of the world. Many reasons account for these conflicts. Studies have demonstrated how failure to establish laws that grant communities resident on forest margins access to forest resources and to enforce laws that pertain to their sustainable use are among the major causes of dissatisfaction and conflict.¹⁰ Poor governance, legal and institutional arrangements, including lack of transparency and accountability, corruption and population increase, among other factors, also account for conflict. Resource-based conflict has hindered management and sustainable exploitation of forests in many parts of the world.¹¹

Forests have, in many places and circumstances, been either safety nets, poverty traps or escape routes.¹² Forest-rich areas, such as eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, have often been used as bases by groups engaged in armed struggle.¹³ As was the case with the União Nacional Para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) in Angola, forest resources are sometimes used to fund war.¹⁴ Forests are also places where war-crimes suspects hide from prosecution and where refugees flee for safety. Even in the absence of conflict...