The landsafe socioecological development model for the customary commons of Zambia : evolution and formalization
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Zambia is either customary land (94%) under some measure of \ncontrol by chiefs and headmen, or state land (6%), comprising \nprotected areas and land held under 99-year leasehold. Protected \nareas and their resources are prone to alienation by the \nstate for mining, forestry, fisheries and wildlife exploitation. \nCustomary land comprises villages and their surrounding agricultural \nland, the remainder being the customary commons \nthat is harvested and plundered for its natural resources by \nresidents, non-residents and criminals. It is also subject to \nalienation to leasehold by chiefs and government officials, and \nappropriated by the state for agriculture and agribusiness, forestry, \nfisheries, mining, tourism, wildlife conservation and \ngame harvesting. Customary area residents with significant \nwildlife populations are 30% poorer than those living elsewhere. \nCustomary residents have no ownership or harvesting \nrights to game animals. To counteract the open-access harvesting \nand plunder of customary land and the protected land associated \nwith it, it is proposed that statutory trusts be \nestablished by customary communities, that customary land \nbe vested in them, and that they enter into co-management \ncustodial and harvesting agreements with the state in respect to fisheries, forestry, water and wildlife. Between 2003 and \n2011, the author attempted to implement his model, called \nLandsafe, in two adjoining chiefdoms in the Luangwa Valley. \nThis article proposes that the successful implementation of \nLandsafe would assure customary residents secure access to \nland and lasting benefits from renewable natural resources, essential \nto biodiversity conservation and to the socioecological \nand cultural integrity of Zambia.
Author: I Manning
Language: English
Topic: Land Rights and Reforms
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2509830123