Optimal principles and pragmatic strategies:creating an enabling politico-legal environment for Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)

A conference paper presented at Chobe, Botswana by Prof. Murphree on the Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) initiative in the Southern African region particularly Zimbabwe.Let me start this address with an hypothesis. I suggest that the mixed profile of success and failure in CBNRM in the Region owes much of its ambiguity to our strategic pragmatism in its implementation. We have placed policy and practice before politics and thus have encouraged the birth of CBNRM (in its "modern" version) into a politico-legal environment which, if not hostile, is hardly a nurturing one. In so doing we have put an ironic twist on the conventional approach to planned change. A recent draft article on rhino conservation sent to me for review complains that "much time and money get wasted in the political battlefield trying to shape out policies that do not get implemented on the ground." We in CBNRM programmes have done the opposite. We have spent a lot of time and money in implementation on the ground, leaving the outcomes of the political battlefield which surrounds it largely unresolved.USAID-NRM

Communities as institutions for resource management

A CASS Occasional Paper/ Conference Paper on rural environmental management by involving the participation of the community in the management of their shared environs. This paper was initially presented to the National Conference on Environment and Development, Maputo, Mocambique, 7-11 October, 1991.This paper deals with a complex set of issues, but seeks to do so in a relatively clear and non-technical manner. It proceeds therefore by a series of highly condensed propositions and arguments, using a Zimbabwean case study for illustration. Some of the more technical and theoretic underpinnings of the analysis are relegated to footnotes or to the citation of relevant sources

The study of race and ethnic relations in Southern Africa

An inaugural lecture on race relations in Southern Africa during the early 1970's presented on Thursday, 4th November, 1971 on the Occasion of the Inauguration of The Maurice Webb Chair of Race Relations at the University of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Education, Race and Employment in Rhodesia: a Review of the Review

A RJE review of another review of a book on race relations, education and employment opportunities in the then Rhodesia. A review of Prof. S.H. Irvine's review by Prof. M.W. Murphree.In his review of this book (RJE, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 1975 pp 157/ 175) Professor Irvine concludes his summary of what he considers to be both its value and its defects with the statement, “Nevertheless it should be read. But not without qualification. And not uncritically”. With this I concur completely. No intelligent reader should do otherwise, particularly with a book dealing with a subject of such central significance for this Country’s social and economic development. The same should be said of Professor Irvine’s review. It is extensive if not exhaustive, contains points of valuable detail and raises one issue of major analytical significance. It is at certain points highly entertaining, and generous in endorsing certain arguments the book puts forth. Unfortunately the review also contains one blatantly false assertion regarding what the book is alleged to have said and, more diffusely and by implication, attributes other conclusions to the work which it does not make. The result is the creation of a series of straw men which the reviewer then proceeds to demolish with magisterial gusto but which have little if anything to do with the real conclusions of the volume and which are likely to mislead the unwary reader into the assumption that the book presents a perspective and takes a position which, in fact, it does not. The admonition of the review is therefore singularly appropriate to itself — it should be read, but not without qualification, and not uncritically

Africanizing Employment in Zimbabwe: The Socio-Political Constraints

A ZJE article on 'job-creation" for African people in the 1970's.The racially-structured nature of the occupational structure in Zimbabwe during the "Rhodesian Years", 1890-1979, with its built-in bias favouring White employees, has been amply documented elsewhere O) and requires no amplification here. Equally patent is the fact that a major policy objective of the new government which comes to power as a result of the February 1980 elections will be to redress this bias. What is not clear is the extent and form which this redressive action will take. The debate on these questions is likely to take place under an obfuscating cloud of assertions concerning goals; propositions stated axiomatically in terms of values and objectives, what is considered to be 'right', 'proper', 'ethical' or 'desirable'. But planning is not simply "the art of the desirable". It is, like politics, also "the art of the possible". To be effective, planning must take into consideration the constraints which circumscribe progress towards goals and must therefore balance principle with pragmatism. One of the best descriptions of this tension was made by Henry Kissinger who, speaking on U.S. foreign policy, once wrote, "Foreign policy is, like life, a constant effort to strike the right balance between the best we want and the best we can have - between the ends we seek and the means we adopt." While recognizing the importance of "ethical purpose" he went on to add, "But we need as well a mature sense of means, lest we substitute wishful thinking for the requirements of survival."(2

Savannah land use: policy and practice in Zimbabwe

A conference presented at the IUBS UESCO/UNEP conference workshop on: Economic Driving Forces And Constraints On Savanna Land Use, Nairobi, Kenya, January 1991.Zimbabwe is situated on the high plateau of east and Southern Africa and lies wholly within the tropics. There are four main physiographic regions with the eastern mountains forming a narrow band along the Mozambique border. The rest of the country is characterised by the north-east to south-west watershed - the "highveld" which lies above 1200m and which descends to the Zambezi River in the north and the Limpopo River in the southeast via a scries of plateaux, with the middle veld (900-1200m) giving way to the lowveld (below 900m). The soils are mainly derived from the ancient basement complex underlying the continent and are consequently infertile. Apart from high rainfall areas of the eastern highlands the country is predominantly wooded savanna with a mean annual rainfall of between 400 an I 1200 mm per annum with some 65% of the country receiving less than 750mm per annum. The moister, north . astern sector, is able to support commercial farming based on cash and food crops and beef production. An equable tropical climate conferred by its altitude (about 66% lies above 900m) and the promise of high agricultural potential resulted in a relatively large, for an African colony, immigrant white population. This unusual situation lead to early self governing colonial status, an entrenched dual land use system (Figs. 1 and 2), a dual agricultural economy, and delayed political independence. Within this framework we examine the developing political economy of Zimbabwe and its impact on changing land use patterns and savanna ecology. This chapter identifies the principal components which have shaped contemporary savanna land use policy and practice in Zimbabwe and provides policy recommendations of national and international relevance.IUBS -UNESCO / UNE

Conservation policy and the campfire programme in Zimbabwe

A position paper on wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe with sustainable participation of rural communities.Over the past few decades the term "conservancy" has gained increasing usage in Southern Africa and elsewhere. In Zimbabwe the term ha© generally been applied to wildlife and habitat management units on private land and as the size and number of these units has expanded calls for a "conservancy policy" have arisen. Focused as they are on commercial farm land, such calls could be held to have little direct relevance for the CAMPFIRE Programme and its operations in communal land. Such a view would however be myopic if not careless. A poorly conceived conservancy policy and cognate legislation could impact negatively on the CAMPFIRE Programme Conversely, the conservancy concept, properly designed and articulated in policy and practice, has the potential to enhance the success of CAMPFIRE. This discussion paper looks at conservancy policy from the perspective of the Rural District Council (RDC) and communal farmer interests, exploring some of the issues involved and making suggestions on processes which can capitalise on the potential of the concept to benefit CAMPFIRE'S constituency.US Agency For International Development (USAID

Communities as resource management institutions

Paper presented at the National Conference on Environment and Development held Maputo, Mozambique, 7-11 Oct 1991SIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Response criteria for intraocular retinoblastoma: RB-RECIST.

Standardized guidelines for assessing tumor response to therapy are essential for designing and conducting clinical trials. The Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) provide radiological standards for assessment of solid tumors. However, no such guidelines exist for the evaluation of intraocular cancer, and ocular oncology clinical trials have largely relied on indirect measures of therapeutic response-such as progression-free survival-to evaluate the efficacy of treatment agents. Herein, we propose specific criteria for evaluating treatment response of retinoblastoma, the most common pediatric intraocular cancer, and emphasize a multimodal imaging approach for comprehensive assessment of retinoblastoma tumors in clinical trials