0041-C1
Beatrice Kabumbu Lukama 1
The concept of managing the forest resource by the people for their own benefit is so critical, such that it requires every means available to be put into practice in order to realise the full potential of a given forest resource. We all need the world forest resource to be managed sustainably in order to attain the global environmental management aspirations, such the slowing down of the global warming and the devastating effects of the changing weather pattern. At regional level the concern for the forest resource may be centred on the trade in forest products.
However, at local level the ecological imbalance brings about untold misery to the users of the forest resource. Hence, the rehabilitation of a forest has a direct positive effect on the enhancement of the socio-economic status of the people. It is of vital importance to ensure that the local communities are at the centre of all the planning and implementation of every tree planting and rehabilitation of the environment. The local knowledge about forest conservation and management aspects, is an essential input to the community forestry programme
The case of the Luangwa/Zambezi rivers confluence catchment area depicts a typical situation, where the forests resource was mismanaged to the extent of putting the population into a vicious circle of poverty. This situation has brought pressure on the inhabitants of the area, to fully participate in the rehabilitation of the forest resource in order to improve on their own living standards.
Luangwa District is situated in a unique setting, close to the confluence of the Luangwa/Zambezi Rivers. Zambia shares boarders with Mozambique along the Luangwa river on the eastern side of Luangwa district and on the southern side is the Zambezi river along which Zambia shares borders with Zimbabwe. Luangwa is usually very hot and the rainfall is quite erratic.
The socio-economic status of the people in this area is largely influenced by the activities, which take place in the Luangwa and Zambezi rivers. These include fishing, reed harvesting, transportation etc. most of the people are involved in subsistance farming. The problem of deforestation around the rivers catchment area, has taken it's toll on the two major rivers of the country. The cultivation and growing of food crops along the Luangwa river basin, has greatly contributed to the occurrence of siltation and sedimentation. It has become a common feature for the Luangwa river to change its course due to the dramatic rate of siltation and sedimentation. Flooding of cultivated areas and property has become a common phenomenon in the area.
All these Luangwa/Zambezi river related disasters are due to the ecological imbalance brought about as a result of deforestation. This calls for an integrated approach to find solutions to the impending ecological crisis. Moreover, the communities in this area should be fully involved with the formulation of strategies for the rehabilitation of the degraded areas and conservation of the forest resource along these economically important rivers.
The integrated approach to forest conservation and management has been seen as the best approach to resolving the crisis of deforestation in Luangwa. This is so because ecological imbalance has affected, agriculture, fisheries and other socio-economic aspects of the area.
Rehabilitation of the degraded areas of Luangwa requires urgent attention as most people are feeling the impact of deforestation.
Current activities in the area, such as charcoal production, cattle grazing and poor agricultural methods in particular have brought about erosion and gully formation resulting in the problem of siltation, sedimentation and floods. On the other hand, erosion in some areas has resulted in the loss of soil fertility in arable land. These have far reaching consequences on the lives of the people.
The first culprits to these consequences are the people in the vicinity of these resources, who are current experiencing poverty levels beyond proportion. The situation of the livelihoods of the people in Luangwa is quite critical, as they have to depend on the government relief food most of the time for survival. This is the food which is brought in the country through the United Nations, World Food programme.
Demand for grazing land
Most of the cattle keepers in the area depend on communal land for grazing their animals. It is not uncommon to find stretches of land, which have been devastated by over grazing. These areas are characterised by the effects of erosion and gully formation. Efforts are being made by the Department of Agriculture to improve on the cattle raring methods and introduce appropriate methods of agroforestry to help curb the situation.
Agriculture land
Due to the over exploitation of the forest and land resource, there are no more fertile areas for cultivation near the homesteads. Most of the people still practice shifting method of agriculture. As a common fact, shifting cultivation often defeats itself as the population increases and the fallow period in the system obviously shortens. This has led to the setting up of farm plots in distant places, which are much closer to the game management areas on the western side of the district. In such situations the crops are prone to animal destruction, leaving the people with no harvest what so ever. In turn the people resort to cultivating the steep slopes near their homes. The obvious out come is severe erosion occurrence and gully formation, resulting in poor crop yields and increased debris deposition especially in the Luangwa river.
These resource poor farmers have not seriously adopted any kind of improved farming techniques to enable them grow crops under such harsh environmental and climatic conditions.
The situation of lacking of agricultural inputs, combined with these other factors mentioned above, forces people to cultivate the river banks, where the soil is fertile, due to the organic matter deposits left behind after the floods. In these areas they also take advantage of the moisture availability along the riverbank. This agriculture practice has greatly contributed to the siltation and sedimentation in the Luangwa river and the people know quite well that, this is the reason for the poor fish catches.
The whole system of life has gone in a vicious circle. Some of the people do not plant any trees around their homesteads, because of the frequent shifting from one fishing camp to the other.
Charcoal production
Due to the high unemployment levels in the area, some people have taken charcoal production as a means of earning a living. The demand for charcoal and firewood in the district is quite high as most people cannot afford to use electricity, because of the high tariff rates. There is virtually nothing wrong with the involvement of people in charcoal production, if the proper methods of production, such as the coup system are put in place. This is a system where a given forest is demarcated into portions and each area is harvested for charcoal production in a specified year. Leaving the other portions of the forest regenerating. Very few people have been following this kind of approach in producing charcoal.
However, the common practice in Luangwa is devastating, as the harvesting of tree for charcoal production is done randomly. The culture of felling the trees by burning them at the stump level, leaves the stump with no chance of sprouting, as the fire destroys the roots of the trees. This mechanism leaves the area bear for a long time. The Forestry Extension Officers through the District Conservation Committee have taken on the task of ensuring that the proper methods of producing charcoal are put into practice. This has involved the campaigns and use of the community theatre groups to drive the message to the target groups.
Most of the ventures in the area are largely influenced by the activities in the two major rivers. These are fishing and reed harvesting. Most of the fish harvested from these rivers find it's way in the markets of the major cities of the country such as Lusaka. However, the fish catches are going down especially in the Luangwa river, where the harvey siltation prevents the fish breeding from being effective. To some extent fish requires clean, steady water flow in which to lay eggs and produce fingerlings. But the Luangwa river in this particular district does not provide such an environment for the fish, hence the downward trend in fish output.
The aspect of harvesting reeds from the Luangwa and the Zambezi rivers has a significant bearing on the economy of the area. These reeds are used to weave mats and other basketry products. These items are transported to the cities where they fetch a lot of money for the people involved in the trade.
The other important component of the economy is the subsistence timber trade, which also needs to be streamlined in order for it to be conducted in a more organised way. The Forestry Extension Officers have taken up this challenge and are discussing with the target groups in the community, to ensure that they know about the sustainable harvesting method, the information documentation and marketing procedures.
Due to the vast wildlife resource which is about 9 000 kilometre squared in area on the western side of the district, tourism is another important aspect of the economy in the area. There are a number of lodges along the Zambezi riverbank. This is the home for the popular walking safaris. There is a total of 60 animal species and 400 species of birds.
Along the Luangwa riverine the dominant tree species are Diospyrus mespiliformis, Acacia albida and kigelia africana and the ficus specis. Upland you find the mopane woodlands. However, there is a lot yet to be done for the area to be appreciated fully for eco-tourism.
In Luangwa there is a tree species locally known as Masau. This is an important wild tree, in that it produces fruits that are edible and fetch a lot of money in the city markets of Lusaka. This tree is easily propagated from seed. Plans are underway to establish plantations of Masau trees, to ensure increased production of the fruits.
Most of the people of Luangwa belong there by descent. They have a Chief who appoints the village headmen to help him govern his subjects. Apart from this traditional set up, the villagers have strong links to the district government machinery. The district government is comprised of mainly the government workers responsible for providing extension and management services in health, fisheries, agriculture, forestry, social and community development. The other aspect of the culture is that the village headmen have to be consulted before proceeding to conduct any activities with the villagers.
The culture is largely influenced by the fishing population. The people involved in the fishing business live in camps and shift at will from one camp to another. Due to the inclination for shifting these people do not plant tree, not even fruit trees. Besides they cut the trees around their temporary home shelters, for drying the fish. This leaves the fishing camps surroundings dominated with the gigantic adanisonia digitat (baobab) trees.
Due to the people's strong sense of heritage, it has been difficult for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to persuade people from cultivating and growing food crops along the animal corridors. Considering that the Luangwa area is often very hot and dry, the wild animals have to travel from the game management areas on the western side of the district, to go and drink water in the Luangwa river. These animals tend to use the same tracks most of the time and would browse any crops along the way. Unfortunately, the local people do not want to take heed and stop growing crops in these animal corridors. They would rather have the Wildlife Management team do something to stop the animals from eating their food crops. This has resulted in a conflict which is yet to be resolved. This is one of the aspects, which necessitated that the district takes an integrated approach to forest conservation and management. With the promotion of integrated landuse management with the communities a number of problems, which have an effect on the livelihood of the people shall be resolved.
One good aspect about the people of Luangwa is their openness. One could discuss their predicament with either men or women, and can easily get their story of the situation. Both men and women have been involved in training for forest nursery management. The primary school closest to the district headquarters is the centre for spearheading the initiative of forest nursery management. The idea behind the raising of trees, is to ensure that each homestead gets some fruit trees to plant at their farm or backyard garden. Efforts have been made to bring in seedlings for distribution from the city. However, for the tree planting and forest rehabilitation programme to be sustainable the seedlings are being raised by the community.
The local youth theatre group has been quite instrumental in the campagns for community involvement in forest conservation and management. The same grouping that have been formed for communicating health matters, are the same ones being used to conduct forest conservation and management programmes. This integrated approach was arrived at in the discussions with the various stakeholders at the district level. This was so because the same target population, which most of the government officials deal with, are the very ones who do the farming, fishing, raring animals, producing charcoal for sale and are involved with the healthy programmes. The government officials have been dealing with the community in the various fields in the past. However, it is now that the officials and the community are focusing on the forest conservation and management together, for the benefit of all.
The introduction of beekeeping in the area has been welcome by all, as it provides an income for the participants through the selling of honey and wax. On the other hand, as the people get more and more involved in the honey and wax production it is hoped that they will start setting aside part of the indigenous forest around their homesteads for the keeping of the bee hives. This will eventually have an effective contribution to forest conservation and management. This situation is being experienced in the North/western province of Zambia, where traditional beekeeping has been uplifted to commercial level.
It is wonderful to note that the people of the area have come to the realisation that the dependence on government relief food is not a sustainable way of going about life. They are fully aware of the destructive mechanisms that have led to this predicament of poverty.
Considering that the problems which were being faced by the community encampased many areas, such as agriculture, fisheries, healthy, forestry, wildlife, community and social development, an integrated approach to resolving the problem of poverty was agreed upon. There was a need for all the stakeholders and the community to work together, for the benefit especially of the local people. The aim was to spearhead community forestry and agroforestry, which are just the different ways of saying much the same thing and the debate over who should own and benefit from forests has shifted in favour of the local communities. However, for the purposes of ensuring effective programme management it was emphasised that the communities further be broken down to household farm unit level.
At the time of facilitating the formation of the district forest conservation and management committee, it was realised that the co-ordination of forest conservation activities be done through the already existing structures. This included the healthy management village groupings. From the discussions with the stakeholders within the district, the interactions between the various components in the landuse systems were clearly understood. The insight of the villager's daily lives helped enabled every one to see how forests and people were intertwined and how the farming systems worked. The knowledge on the ecological, social and economic interactions among components of the landuse system, brought to light the pre-requisites for participatory forest management among the local people.
The concept of sustainable forest resource management in this particular instance has evolved to encampass wider issues and values. It is the multipurpose management of the forest resource, so as to ensure that it's overall capacity to provide goods and services is not diminished further.
The Luangwa/Zambezi rivers confluence has been a strategic area for the commencement of the programme of forest resource rehabilitation and conservation. This is so because of the impact that the activities in these two major rivers have on the socio-economic status of the people that live near them and beyond.
The rehabilitation of the forest resource will eventually bring about an ecological balance, where the ecosystem will have the capacity to support all the organism and animals that depend on it. The fish resource especially in the Luangwa river will increase and the wildlife habitats will not be threatened any more.
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