60 



The advent of CAMPFIRE has reversed this situation by transforming wildlife, the liability, 

 into wildlife the important economic asset. To succeed, CAMPFIRE has introduced 

 legislation which effectively devolves ownership of wildlife to local communities. For the 

 first time in recent history, wildlife management has the potential to become a competitive 

 form of land use for the local communities who live with it. Wildlife is now viewed as a 

 valuable resource, which should be managed, nurtured and utilized in the same manner in 

 which a farmer previously managed his cattle. Wildlife has a comparative advantage to cattle 

 on semi-and rangelands as it makes wider and better use of the available vegetation and has 

 many marketable uses in addition to meat production. Conservative estimates indicate that 

 wildlife utilization produces returns of at least double those produced from livestock ranching 

 on marginal lands, approximately 50% of the land area of Zimbabwe. 



By linking conservation benefits with development objectives, habitat destruction and 

 degradation has been reversed in Zimbabwe. CAMPFIRE started in 1989 when 2 districts 

 received authority to manage their wildlife. The fact that by 1993, 22 districts had joined the 

 program, approximately one third of all the districts in the country, speaks for itself. A 

 similar situation has occurred in the commercial farming sector. Today, more than 75% of 

 the privately owned ranches in Zimbabwe have integrated wildlife management practices into 

 their overall land use strategy and thus derive additional income from wildlife. In the SE 

 Low veldt a consortium of 22 commercial farmers have recently pooled their land to form a 

 wildlife conservancy of approximately 1 million acres, which Zimbabweans claim will be 

 the largest privately owned wildlife area in the world. Today in Zimbabwe 50% of the land 

 dedicated to wildlife management is found in commercial and communal areas, whilst 

 National Parks account for less than 30%. 



This amounts to more than one third of the area of Zimbabwe, a real contribution to 

 biodiversity conservation. Key species have also benefitted considerably as a result, with 

 several species previously classified as endangered, such as the cheetah, Nile crocodile and 

 elephant, seeing significant increases in their populations. Habitat loss has been the single 

 biggest threat to wildlife conservation in Africa, by reversing this, many species have seen 

 increases in their populations. 



Under CAMPFIRE more than 250,000 people are now engaged in the practice of managing 

 wildlife and reaping the benefits of using wild lands. These people live in remote areas that 

 have historically been by passed by development initiatives and it is no exaggeration to say 

 that they are some of the poorest people in the world. CAMPFIRE revenues amount to 

 approximately US$ 2,000,000 per year, an enormous figure when one considers that the 

 average annual income per household in these areas is approximately US$150. Communities 

 have devised a number of ways to improve their livelihoods by taking advantage of the new 

 found value of wildlife. The single biggest revenue generating activity is internationally 

 marketed safari hunting, which generates over 90% of all cash income. But a variety of other 

 uses exist, such as photographic safaris; live sales of wildlife; cropping to provide nutrition 

 locally and sale of skins. The revenues from these efforts generally go directly to 

 households, which decide how to use the proceeds. In the recent drought years this cash has 



