Fragmentation of resource governance along the shoreline of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

The mid-Zambezi valley where Lake Kariba now lies was transformed at the end of the 1950s from a previously complex integrated knowledge and resource management system that supported the livelihoods of the Tonga people to the existing dysfunctional assemblage of fragmented systems. This fragmentation of resource governance, through a tenure shift in which large areas were designated as protected land, transferred power from local people to the state. Today the valley supports diverse economic interests, to the detriment of the local inhabitants, who have been marginalised. At stake are issues of sustainability and livelihoods. This paper discusses the status of woodland and wildlife and the failure of the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources to improve the situation for the local people.