50 



revolution' in the near future and may instead need to pursue a more diversified path of natural 

 resource management and agricultural production based upon the prevalent natural conditions and 

 available resources. 



Africa's current development paths have focused on intensifying the productivity of arable 

 agriculture and livestock at the expense of exploring the productive potential of other existing 

 resources. This has produced competition for land in which the potential benefits of much of the 

 indigenous &una and flora, particularly wildlife, are largely neglected. At the same time 

 conservation efforts have sought to protect these resources against development, creating a 

 seemingly insurmountable conflia between the goals of conservation and development. Many 

 Afiican countries are currently rediscovering the productive and economic potential of their 

 indigenous resources in their national development programmes. It is in this context that we see 

 the following example as providing possible options for reconciling conservation and development 

 objectives, whilst addressing the challenges described above. 



Traditional ^proaches to conservation in Afiica have been based upon the Western conservation 

 paradigm of protectionism. This essentially assumes that any interaction, particularly use, between 

 humans and wildlife will have a negative conservation impact. It has sought to place wildlife 

 within a vacuum, creating protected areas in which humans give way entirely to animals. These 

 protected areas are often viewed v/ith resentment as they are seen by rural people as under used 

 and elitist. Outside the proteaed areas we see an increasing trend in which the converse situation 

 occurs, with the wildlife and its habitat giving way entirely to people, often resulting in a loss of 

 biodiversity and environmental degradation. 



ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS - COMMUNITY BASED NATURAL RESOURCE 

 MANAGEMENT 



In the last ten years there has been a growing recognition throughout Afiica that this protectionist 

 approach to wildlife conservation has been failing to address either the environmental or 

 de.elopmental needs of African nations. An alternative approach to conservation was required, 

 which would address the realities of conservation and development in the African context. This 

 approach, commonly known as community based natural resource managemem, is one in which 

 responsibility for the management, use and benefit of natural resources, including wildlife, is 

 returned to riie local communities who live with it. This pragmatically acknowledges that benefits 

 must accrue to the people who coexist with wildlife or more economically viable - but often 

 environmentally degrading - land uses will be preferred. 



Zimbabwe was one of the first countries to pioneer this approach through the introduction of the 

 Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) Programme. 

 CAMPFIRE, and other similar programmes throughout Southern Afirica, recognize the following 

 key points as fiindamental to the sustainable management of the natural resource base: 



• Those who can best manage the wildlife resource are those people who live with it on a 

 daily basis 



• The conservation of wild species and habitat will only be successful in the long tun if it is 



