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The module opened with an activity where participants examined the distinctions between natural resource management and governance. This was followed by two sessions which helped to frame the module.
Dr Thembela Kepe reflected on the introductory activity with a session examining the concept of governance and its embodiment of notions of power and authority. He highlighted problems with interpretations of the concept of governance that attempt to reduce it to a set of rules noting that this paradoxically separates governance from the politics of resource control. His input also introduced the principle of subsidiarity and opened the debate on the extent to which decentralisation and devolution improve natural resource management.
Munyaradzi Saruchera provided important background for the module in his session which provided a comprehensive analysis of emerging issues in CBNRM. He provided background on the roots of CBNRM emphasising that CBNRM was an approach - not a package that emphasised local conception and management and high degree of flexibility. He set out the growing divide between proponents of CBNRM and those advocating more traditional approaches to biodiversity conservation and resource management. He observed that CBNRM was increasingly coming under criticism, but from very different quarters. This criticism was from two sources - the self criticism of CBNRM practitioners as part of a reflexive practice and criticism from those supporting more traditional preservationist approaches. The session analysed preservationist arguments before examining the arguments in defence of CBNRM. The session concluded by highlighting the key challenges for CBNRM.
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Munyaradzi Saruchera outlines key trends in CBNRM
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Alima Issufo provides background on changing forest policy in Mozambique
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Jeanette Clarke discusses forest policy shifts in South South Africa
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Japhet Kashaigili and Mandla debate a point
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Kulthoum Omari reports on her group's analysis of policy
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Dr Thembela Kepe and Webster Whande
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The module then reviewed policy and legislation shaping natural resource management in different sectors and countries in the region. This was divided into four sessions focusing on
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Forest policy legislation and resource management approaches in Mozambique and Zimbabwe
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Wildlife policy in Zimbabwe, Botswana and
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Marine resources in Namibia and South Africa
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Freshwater fisheries in Malawi
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Each session was followed by policy analysis activities highlighting key trends and issues relevant to the sector.
Forest resources
Alima Issufo provided an assessment of changing forest policy in Mozambique while Jeanette Clarke analysed the new directions in South African forest policy post 1994. Both forest policy sessions highlighted the central importance of land and tenure policy for the management of forest resources and the need for land and forest policies to be closely aligned.
Participants developed a comparative analysis of the forest policy and its implementation in the two countries.
Wildlife policy and legislation
Excellent Hachileka provided a comparative analysis of changing wildlife policy and management in Zimbabwe and Botswana. His sessions provided information on the legal framework for wildlife management, the implementation of legal and policy frameworks, the wildlife management institutions and their mandates and the impacts of international conventions on wildlife management.
Patricia Skyer of the National Association of CBNRM Associations in Namibia gave a comprehensive overview of land tenure regimes in Namibia, a timeline of changing wildlife policy, the operations of conservancies and the challenges and constraints within current policy. She highlighted the importance of secure and exclusive group rights to natural resources and the need for an integrated approach to resource management.
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Excellent Hachileka reviews wildlife policy in Botswana and Zimbabwe
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Participants in plenary
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Patricia Skyer discusses the lessons of wildlife policy in Namibia
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These sessions laid the groundwork for an analysis of key trends and challenges for wildlife management in the region and a critical assessment of benefits and costs for households in wildlife areas. A number of challenges were identified. The effects of shocks and stresses in the broader socio economic environment on the continuing viability of CBNRM approaches were particularly acute in Zimbabwe where hyperinflation, currency instability and continuing tenure insecurity were identified as key factors devaluing the benefits flowing from CBNRM and challenging the fundamental 'win-win' assumptions that theoretically balance benefits and sustainable use.
Fisheries
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Dr Mafa Hara and Moenieba Isaacs provide analysis of the fisheries sector
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Moenieba Isaacs and Dr Mafa Hara provided the content for the fisheries section of the module. Moenieba compared marine fisheries policies and their implementation in Namibia and South Africa. She profiled attempts to transform the fishing industry in the two countries examined the extent to which powerful fishing interests were able to contain or co-opt transformatory agendas and identified the impacts on the livelihoods of artisanal fishers in South Africa. Her session highlighted unintended consequences of policies intended to advance the interests of a broad category of previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs). Many PDIs with no prior experience in fishing had been able to get fishing quotas which they then sold back to established companies while many small scale artisanal fishers whom policy intended to advantage have ended up by losing their source of livelihood.
Dr Hara examined fisheries co-management in Africa highlighting the failure of centralised approaches to fisheries management which had not prevented overexploitation of fish resources. He noted that decentralisation of management authority for freshwater fisheries had often been reactive - driven the economic imperatives imposed by Structural Adjustment Programmes - as opposed to a positive choice made by state resource management agencies. This resulted in governments remaining reluctant to relinquish management and authority and decision making. Co-management in this context often amounted to a post colonial version of indirect rule where governments still set management objectives and relied on the knowledge base and biases of western trained scientists . The session examined what motivated different actors to argue for co-management approaches. It highlighted the institutional tensions that emerged in the process of implementing co-management arrangements. In many instances new structures were established to represent user communities which often came into conflict with structures based on traditional authority and customary law. Dr Hara noted that fisheries co-management had met with little success to date principally because governments had failed to effectively involve local fishers or draw on their knowledge base. However there was also an acknowledgement of the particular challenges posed by the fugitive nature of the resource itself and the complexities in defining the rights of fishers who migrate to different waters in search of fish.
Key trends and critical success factors for CBNRM
Once the sectoral analyses were complete Webster Whande highlighted some the key emerging themes and issues. He focused on Devolution and decentralisation - facts and fictions critically examining the extent to which governments have been serious about decentralisation and the extent to which responsibilities handed down have been matched with authority and adequate resources. He noted cases where devolution had been 'aborted' and where the state continued to hold onto to authority and revenues intended to benefit local resource users.
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Ratidzai Takawira and Yvonne Ibebeke Bomangwa identify critical success factors
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Mandla Makhanya reporting on the analysis
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Barbara Tapela sums up critical success factors for CBNRM
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Based on the discussion and analysis of the previous days participants worked on an activity to identify critical success factors for NRM policy and threats to its effective implementation. In the process they identified factors relating to the policy environment, rights, empowerment, benefits, local capacity. problem definition, stakeholder identification, participation and linkages. Once groups had presented their analyses Barbara Tapela picked up on each of the categories and discussed critical success factors in more depth.
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