مدیریت محصولات استخراجی جنگلی غیرچوب بری : نهادهای محلی، دانش زیست محیطی و ساختار بازار در جنوب شرقی زیمبابوه

Common-pool resources (CPRs), such as forests, water resources and rangelands, provide a wide variety of economic benefits to forest-fringe dwellers in semi-arid areas of southern Africa. However, the public nature and competition involved in the use of these goods, and weak enforcement of institutional arrangements governing their use may lead to resource degradation. Using survey data from four communities in south-eastern Zimbabwe for 2008 and 2009, this paper examines the extent to which forest degradation is driven by existing common property management regimes resource and user characteristics, ecological knowledge and marketing structure. A Principal Component Analysis indicates that the existence of agreed-upon rules governing usage (including costs of usage), enforcement of these rules, sanctions for rule violations that are proportional to the severity of rule violation, social homogeneity, and strong beliefs in ancestral spirits were the most important attributes determining effectiveness of local institutions in the management of CPRs. Empirical results from a regression analysis showed that resource scarcity, market integration, and infrastructural development lead to greater resource degradation, while livestock income, high ecological knowledge, older households, and effective local institutional management of the commons reduce resource degradation. The results suggest that there is need for adaptive local management systems that enhance ecological knowledge of users and regulates market structure to favour long-term livelihood securities of these forest-fringe communities.

Natural resources are the most accessible source of products and incomes for many economically marginalised people, and are consequently under considerable pressure to provide both production and environmental benefits (Darlong and Barik, 2005). In principle, people can contribute to their economic well-being by harvesting non-timber forest products (NTFPs) (Shaanker et al., 2004). Typically, forest resources accessible to poor people in less developed regions are common-pool resources (CPRs). Because CPRs are often considered to have an inelastic supply, and because their sustainable utilization may be threatened by externalities associated with individual actions in the appropriation of such resources, their sustainable management is an important issue facing both development planners and policy makers (FAO, 2003). Following Hall and Bawa (1993), sustainable utilization of NTFPs can be defined as the level of harvest that does not impair the ability of the harvested population to replace itself. Ticktin (2004) cautions that ignoring the potential variation in harvest strategies and their drivers can lead to incorrect conclusions about resource use sustainability. Research on CPRs management has shown that local community level resources management is the most viable option of CPR management (Agrawal and Gibson, 1999). The emphasis on the community-based approach arises from the assumptions that local communities not only understand their problems but also have greater incentive to find workable solutions to problems because their livelihoods depend on the natural resource (Belcher and Schreckenberg, 2007). Further, as economic opportunities from utilizing the resource grow, so the community will have greater incentive to conserve the resource base and manage it sustainably over time (FAO, 2003). The IUCN's (2005) contention that indigenous knowledge and the equitable participation of local people are crucial in the management and conservation of medicinal plants in southern Africa is consistent with these arguments. Although local control over natural resources is commonly regarded as a win–win solution for environmental preservation and local development, the empirical evidence is rather mixed (Malla, 2000 and Agrawal, 2001). Community-based approaches in Asia have shown that local institutional arrangements, including customs and social conventions designed to induce cooperative solutions, can overcome collective action problems and help achieve efficiency in the use of such resources (Agrawal, 2007). Other studies, however, have shown that factors such as increasing market integration, high population pressure, lack of economic incentives and the breakdown of traditional knowledge and beliefs increase the likelihood of degradation of CPRs under local control (Godoy, 2001 and Belcher and Schreckenberg, 2007). Poverty, low incomes, and immediate survival needs often drive local people to overharvest, at the expense of sustainability. As resources become degraded so people's livelihoods become increasingly vulnerable (FAO, 1996). In rural areas of Zimbabwe, for example, many people lack employment opportunities, due in part to their poor education and limited awareness (FAO, 1996). Moreover, in the face of the current uncertain economic environment in Zimbabwe, their poverty and marginalisation is expected to deepen and continue to the next generation, to the detriment of society as a whole (Saxena, 2003). The indifference of local people, combined with increased demand for NTFPs, has accelerated the degradation of many valuable NTFP resources. The main objective of this study is to examine the extent to which forest degradation in south-eastern Zimbabwe is driven by existing local community management approaches, resource and user characteristics, ecological knowledge and marketing systems. The rest of the paper is organised as follows: Section 2 reviews literature on common-pool resource management NTFPs and their importance in rural livelihoods, market system, traditional knowledge and local institutional management effects on NTFP extraction. Section 3 describes the conceptual framework, study site and research methodology, while section 4 presents the results. The paper ends with conclusions and some policy implications of the study.

The main objective of this paper was to examine the extent to which forest degradation in the semi-arid Sengwe communal area of Zimbabwe is driven by existing common property management regimes, resource and user group characteristics, ecological knowledge and marketing system. In summary, the PCA revealed that social homogeneity, religious taboos, proportion of income from NTFPs and their contribution to household consumption and welfare in times of crisis, monitoring and enforcement of rules and suitable rules for contributing benefits were important variables in explaining the effectiveness of local institutions in governing forest commons. There seems to be a positive correlation between social homogeneity, monitoring and enforcement of rules, religious taboos, and effective local institutional governance of CPRs. Contrarily, high dependence on the resource in times of crisis and for income, and lack of local courts to resolve conflicts lead to fragile local institutional management of CPRs. The results suggest that strong suitable rules, enforcement of these rules and conflict resolution strategies are essential for an effective, local management system. Multiple regression results revealed a positive relationship between resource scarcity, market integration, infrastructure development, and forest degradation. The significant negative relationship on household formation period and household head born in the area implies that households formed earlier and household heads born in the area were more likely to engage in prudent NTFPs extraction activities. The negative and significant relationship with livestock income showed the importance of livestock as a livelihood source. These results have important policy implications for development planners, conservationists and non-governmental organisations working in the region. There is a need for adaptive local management systems that enhance ecological knowledge of users and regulate market structures in favour of long-term livelihood securities of these forest-fringe communities. Though local context is very important to the construction of strong community forest resource management institutions, government should help communities to adopt marketing systems that are not exploitative and formulate resource regulations that are aligned with incentives for long-term sustainable use of resources.