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Landuse Planning and Woodland Management:  A Case Study of Local Control
and Regulatory Capacity on Household and Communal Woodland Resources in
Zimbabwe
By C.Nhira
Price:  [Z$55]

The article is in two sections and addresses the issues surrounding how small-scale
communal farmers protect and control the use of tree resources on individual plots
and communal woodland resources.  The first section is descriptive and the second
section is explanatory.  Three sets of forms of control can be identified:  individual
household controls on household controlled resources, cultural forms of control
tied to traditi onal sacred and secular institutions, and secular controls synonymous
with different layers/categories of state institutions.  I argue that cultural forms of
control are rather diffuse in their operation and effect.  State-imposed controls and
those issued through state-created community institutions, despite being
monitored across all sections of the community, were not enforced to the extent
that community members abided by them.  Exclusion of non-community members
was the exception.

The second section attempts to unravel the forces behind the ineffectiveness of
community institutions.  I argue that contests over the control of resources within
the community (and, paradoxically, the need to build community goodwill) and
power relations which do not favour the community viz a viz state agencies, explain
the ineffectiveness of community institutions to regulate use.  The orchestration
of a shift in the locus of control of control in favour of communities and institution
building support programmes are identified as the ways forward.