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Abstract:
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"Begun under colonialism, enclosure of communal land in protected areas and restrictions on 'traditional' rights in wildlife have become more pervasive under the Zambian state. Both the boundaries inscribed on the land and the legal borders to wildlife access have affected adversely the welfare of residents within the Luangwa Valleys Munyamadzi Game Management Area (MGMA), an important safari concession surrounded on three sides by National Parks. This case study examines the history of these enclosures and their effects upon the livelihoods of rural residents.
"In the 1930s, the colonial administration declared large sections of land as game reserves followed in 1945 by the establishment of Controlled (hunting) Areas, the latter under Tribal Authorities. Colonials also restricted firearms in Africans hands and instituted game licenses to control legal access to game.
"After independence in 1964, the Zambian state re-designated these game reserves as national parks while unilaterally incorporating additional land into the South Luangwa National Park. In addition, the state has withdrawn progressively many earlier concessions on local wildlife uses and on protection of residents from depredation by large mammals. Since its inception in 1988, a donor-sponsored 'community-based' wildlife program (ADMADE) further restricts 'traditional' land and wildlife uses as the state seeks to maximize revenues from the added-value of the wildlife-tourist and safari hunting markets. Structural adjustments, neo-liberal economic policies, and the transformation of the national wildlife agency into a semiautonomous authority (ZAWA) in the 1990s have resurfaced for MGMA residents the litigious issues of land and wildlife access.
"Information from a questionnaire administered to 460+ MGMA residents during 2006 describes some local activities about the land issue, about the high costs of living with wildlife without an agency committed to protecting human life and property, and about the persistence of and high percentage of local residents arrested for 'poaching.'"
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