Where are you: Home News March 2000


March 2000 Newsletter

Appointment of IES Deputy Director

Professor S.B Feresu has been appointed Deputy Director of IES for the next 3 years with effect from 1 January 2000.  She will be Acting Director during Professor B.Campbells’s sabbatical leave.

Participatory Development of Community Based ManagementPlansforLivestock Feed Resources in the Semi-Arid Areas of Zimbabwe

IES in collaboration with the Farming Systems Research Unit (Department of Research and Specialist Services, Ministry of Lands and Water Development), the Livestock Section (Department of Agricultural and Technical Extension Services (AGRITEX) and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (Scotland) are carrying our a project that seeks to integrate the best of science with the best of local knowledge in developing community based management plans for livestock feed resources.

The project is being carried out in the Eastern Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe and is investigating the potential use of local knowledge systems in combination with scientifically based approaches to enhance the existing vegetation management systems.  It seeks to use formal scientific observation to check and estimate the accuracy and precision of local observations.

Once the project has established the usefulness of specific tools and approaches these will be recommended for use by local communities or AGRITEX extension agents.  The project begun in January 2000 runs through to the end of November 2003 and is funded by DFID.

For further information contact Tim Lynam: lynam@trep.co.zw

EPM Support to Harare (Air Quality Management)

The project is being carried out by the University of Zimbabwe (IES in collaboration with Departments of Chemistry and Physics), The City of Harare, Environment 2000 and Department of Natural Resources.The project is concerned with Capacity building in urban environmental planning and management in Harare, focusing on air quality management and air pollution.

The immediate project objectives are to establish:

• An air quality Assessment Model for Harare City that provides Data on its ambient air quality.

• A strategy and action plan to combat air pollution.

• Public awareness that will facilitate reduction in air pollution.

The project is sponsored by DANIDA and will commence in April 2000.  The first phase will be of 2 years duration. 

Community Controlled Projects under Agricultural Research and Extension Fund (AREF)

This is a joint project being carried out by several partners including the Agricultural research Council (ARC), AGRITEX, IRDEP and GTZ-SINDA (a sector project based at GTZ Headquarters).  AREF was established in 1999 by AC under the auspecies of the Agricultural Services Management Project (ASMP).

The project is an exploratory study where first hand experience will be used to provide insights on how local communities can generate proposals for submission to the AREF.  The study will be implemented in five communities in Masvingo and will involve interaction with local people so as to grasp the perspective of farmers on research and extension services.  This interaction will be used in helping the communities to initiate projects, apply for funds and control project implementation.

Several sites will be selected with different preconditions for an active farmer role, based on the degree of self-organisation and confidence of farmers in demanding and assessing services delivered to them as well as the potential of the site for agricultural development.

The first phase of the project which commenced October 1999 will run until October 2000.  The second phase of the project is expected to run from October 2000 to the end of 2001.

For further information contact Mr Chuma:  Department of Soil Science University of Zimbabwe

Farmer Exchange Visits

Twenty seven farmers from the Intermediate Development Group (ITDG), Institute of Environmental Studies (IES), AZTRIK, Zvishavane Water Project, VeCO-Zimbabwe and AGRITEX officers went to Lesotho on an exchange visit in December 1999.  Although Lesotho is often thought to be a small mountainous country without enough flat farming land, the delegates discovered that there was a lot to learn on how farmers in Lesotho have managed to farm in this unfavourable terrain.

Another exchange visit involved Farmers from Chivi who were taken to the lowveld covering Ian Middleton farm and Chiredzi Research Station/  The farmers were exposed to banana and sugarcane plantations, agronomy, water harvesting, gully reclamation, soil and water conservation techniques and fisheries.  The general feeling was that resource-poor farmers should be exposed to slightly advanced communal farmers who make use of the available limited resources to uplift their livelihood.

“Farmers must travel, be exposed to so many challenging situations and must work as a group to find solutions to their own problems!” D.Matsvange

Is Common Property Resource (CPR) Mangement Possible?

A CIFOR and DFID co-sponsored research in Zimbabwe, conducted by IES and partners has concluded that some of the optimism about the potential for CPR management systems is misplaced.  CPR has been promoted along the same lines of an institutional arrangement to help local people manage and benefit from economical forest products.  Unfortunately this has led to a breakdown of traditional institutions and lack of any alternative institutions that meet CPR management criteria.

The failure can be attributed to the following:

• Lack of enabling policy environment.

• Household strategies that are base on over-exploitation of common pool resources.

• Marked and increased differentiation of households within communities.

• Lack of legitimate local organisations and various features of the resources.

This study recommends that more political and social ecology needs to be brought into the CPR debates and that researchers from the South must be aggressive in marketing their work.

Bruce Campbell and Wil de Jong (IES and CIFOR)

Where Does the Power Lie When ’Communities” are Empowered? 

The move to local control of forests and wildlife is now well advanced throughout the world, and has begun to take place in Southern Africa. According to an eight country study conducted by CIFOR and WWF, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is now a common base for models for natural resource management, from co-management initiatives with government on either state or communal land to private sector community partnerships as well as common property arrangements on community owned land.

Despitte the policy commitment for “Community-based” natural resource management there is accumulating evidence that many of the so-called CBNRM programmes are now community-based at all, but have merely resulted in a shift in power from one level of authority and control to another.  It is very easy for the more educated, wealthy and articulate members of the community to hijack a community-based process.  Furthermore in many countries there are still on-going power struggles between traditional authorities and the structures of local government.  A lack of clarity regarding the roles of these institutions in a range of issues complicates and politicizes the implementation of CDNRM and results in competition for power, recognition and control that deflects the focus away from the real target of CBRMN initiatives.

Professor Bruce Campbell

Short Courses on Scientific Writing

The course will cover major aspects of scientific writing, publication and review processes, and is targeted at practicing scientists and MSc and PhD students in the process of writing up their research work.  Each participant is expected to submit a paper to refereed journal at the end of the course.  The 3-day course will therefore be spread over three months.  (13th April, 24th May and 22nd June).  The cost of the course will be Z$3000 per participant.

Apply to:  Mr P.Mapfumo, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Zimbabwe, P.O.Box MP167, Mount Pleasant, HARARE, or contact Ms F Nengomasha at IES Offices for further details.  Application deadline is 31st March 2000

Workshops and Seminars 

GIS Training Workshops (SAREC)
Date:  20-25 April 2000
Venue:  Harare

Environmental Impact Assessment Course for the Mining Sector
Date:  10-14 April 2000
Venue:  Harare

Workshop on the Development of IES and SANTREN DANIDA Intranet
Date 3-7 April 2000
Venue:  Wild Geese Hotel

EU INCO Soil Fertility O.T.D
Date:  15-19 May 2000
Venue:  St Lucia Park, Harare

Workshop on Groundwater Recharge and Sustainable Use
Date:  24-26 May 2000

Agroforestry Adoption Training Workshop
Date:  May 2000 (5 days)
Venue:  Kadoma

SAREC GIS Workshops
Dates:  Every last Friday of the Month