Decentralizing Common Property Resources Management: A Case Study of the Nyaminyami District Council of Zimbabwe's Wildlife Management Programme [DRAFT]

Abstract

"This paper focuses on the devolution of the management of common property resources (CPRs) from central government to local communities in the communal lands (CLs) of the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe. The District Council of these CLs has recently been granted 'appropriate authority' status over the management of the wildlife resources of the CLs. With appropriate authority status, wildlife management programmes have been drawn up and instituted under the Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) and the council is developing local level institutions to manage these resources under common property regimes. This paper outlines the approach taken by the council to devolve control to sub-district levels and draws lessons from this experience about the problems and prospects of sustainable local management of CPRs. The primary focus is on the dynamics of institutional development and wildlife management under communal tenure regimes. Evidence from the case study seems to suggest that while local, institutions promise to offer solutions to the most pressing problems of common properties, there exists an array of other interests in the commons whose actions and intentions regarding the resource in question present major obstacles to the ability of local communities to evolve effective resource management institutions and strategies. Such interests also tend to be dominant in this dynamic and thus define and determine the process by which management is devolved to the local communities."