Simon M. Munthali

By Simon M. Munthali, Richard M. Mkandawire and Nasson Tembo

Part of the book: Rural Development

By Simon M. Munthali, Nicholas Smart, Victor Siamudaala, Morris Mtsambiwa and Eleanor Harvie

Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) are being established throughout southern Africa to integrating biodiversity conservation and rural development at the transboundary landscape scale. Among the nine TFCAs that have been established over the past 20 years, the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA) is the most grandiose in terms of size (≈ 520,000 Km2), number of partner countries involved (five), elephant (Loxodonta africana) population (≈ 199,031, which is the largest on the African continent), and encompasses 36 protected areas of various categories, interspaced by communal and private lands. The TFCA concept aims to ensure that key ecological processes continue to function where borders have divided ecosystems, and wildlife migration corridors. Attainment of this ecological objective is however being constrained by the anthropogenic threats, mostly poaching, and habitat fragmentation. These threats are being aggravated by the increasing human population, climate variability and underdeveloped rural livelihoods. To restore ecological processes, the following tactics have been recommended: (a) strengthening of transboundary law enforcement to effectively reduce poaching, and illegal offtake of timber; (b) establishment of “Stepping Stones” in the form of conservancies and fishing protected zones at wildlife crossing point on the major river systems; (c) reducing dependence on wood-fuel, and ensuring sustainable provision of affordable and reliable modern sources of energy; (d) adoption of the commodity-based trade standards in the production of beef for the export market to reduce the impact of veterinary fences on the dispersing wildlife; (e) implementation of early-season burning around all the sensitive biomes to protect them from the destructive late dry season fires; (f) adoption of conservation agriculture as a tool for improving land husbandry, intensification of agriculture, and decreasing the likelihood of cutting down forested areas to plant new agriculture fields; and (g) reducing the impact of climate variability on wildlife by providing artificial water – guided by environmental impact assessments. To enhance the socioeconomic development of the local communities and win them as allies in securing the wildlife dispersal corridors, the following actions should be adopted: (a) promotion of community-private partnerships in ecotourism development – alongside the establishment of a revolving loan fund to enable local communities’ access flexible source of capital for investment in ecotourism and auxiliary business opportunities; (b) promotion of biodiversity stewardship as an incentive for the local communities to commit their land to the sustenance of the wildlife dispersal corridors; (c) reducing human wildlife conflicts, through macro, meso and micro-level land-use planning to spatially delineate land committed to various categories, including protected areas, wildlife dispersal areas, and developed and communal areas; and (d) promotion of harmonised enabling policies and legislation to facilitate slowing down of human population growth, which is one of the prime triggers of habitat fragmentation in the KAZA TFCA.

Part of the book: Selected Studies in Biodiversity

By Simon M. Munthali, Jeremiah Machavi and Jonas Mongoè

This chapter offers lessons on the ineffectiveness of community collective land stewardship as an enabling tool for local communities in semi-arid Africa to adopt biodiversity conservation to diversify their income and contribute to sustainable local-level rural development. While collective community stewardship of land could have transformed local land from an open accessed commodity into a collectively managed resource for community prosperity, and ensuring democratic decision-making, and permanent community benefits for generations, the Mozambique government’s inability to effectively implement the statutes of its land law thwarted the Cubo community’s dream to contribute to local sustainable development, due to competing land use. In the case of Mozambique, a number of factors contributed to the community’s loss of its land to alternative use/agrofuel production, including the government’s inadequate political will to enforce the land law’s statutes; ineffective civil society to protect communities against the booming private interest in land for investment in agro-based businesses; blind loyalty of community members to their traditional leaders who are susceptible to corruption and manipulation by the private sector; illiteracy among community members, which renders them incapable of fully understanding their legal rights to land; and lack of financial capacity for the community to take legal recourse against the government’s violation of its land law. We recommend that the new discourse on land tenure reform in Mozambique should: critically examine the effectiveness of how the government is enforcing its land tenure legislation; consolidate processes of accountable governance, transparency, and promotion of the rule of law. Additionally, Mozambique’s civil society should: (a) proactively influence the government to prioritize implementation of existing laws and policies that promote devolved natural resources management to the local communities, and work on harmonizing cross-sectoral policies and legislation that improve management effectiveness of land and natural resources; (b) strongly advocate for implementation of Community-based Natural Resources Management models that strengthen locally accountable institutions for natural resource management and use—enabling local communities to protect their land and associated resources against foreign acquisitions; (c) improve transparency and effectiveness in enforcing the land law—to ensure that all its statutes are adequately implemented and enforced. The Cubo community’s experience of losing its collectively secured land to alternative uses exemplifies one of the challenges faced in integrating local communities in biodiversity conservation and rural development programs in southern Africa, wherein some situations, power and money could easily trump laws and rules.

Part of the book: Sustainable Rural Development Perspective and Global Challenges