Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources: Difference between revisions

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== Background ==

CAMPFIRE was initiated in 1989 by the Zimbabwean government as a program to support community-led development and sustainable use of natural resources.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Frost|first=Bond|last2=Bond|first2=Ivan|date=2008|title=The CAMPFIRE Programme in Zimbabwe: Payment for Wildlife Services|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222401703|journal=Ecological Economics|volume=65|issue=4|pages=776–87|via=Research Gate|doi=10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.09.018}}</ref> The 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act set the legal basis for CAMPFIRE by allowing communities and private landowners to use wildlife on their land, marking a substantial shift from colonial policy that made it illegal for local populations to utilize wildlife in any way.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Vorlaufer|first=Karl|date=2002|title=CAMPFIRE-The Political Ecology of Poverty Alleviation, Wildlife Utilisation and Biodiversity Conservation in Zimbabwe|url=|journal=Erdunke|volume=56|pages=184–206|via=}}</ref>

Population pressures in Zimbabwe have led to people living in communal lands, much of which is arid and unsuitable for agricultural farming.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Murindagomo|first=Felix|date=1990|title=Zimbabwe: WINDFALL and CAMPFIRE|url=|journal=Living with Wildlife: Resource Management with Local Participation in Africa|volume=|pages=123–140|via=}}</ref> CAMPFIRE would allow individuals to earn income on these communal lands through sustainable use of the environment and wildlife.<ref name=":3" /> CAMPFIRE is managed through Rural District Councils (RDCs) who distribute contracts for safari hunting and tourism and allocate revenue to local wards.<ref name=":0" /> Poaching was to be suppressed by the people in these hunting areas.<ref>Ceballos, G.; Ehrlich, A. H.; Ehrlich, P. R. (2015). ''The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals''. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 170 - 172. {{ISBN|1421417189}} - via open edition.</ref> While some endangered animals were killed, the program aimed at supporting these populations in the long run by managing hunting, decreasing illegal poaching, and strengthening the economic prospects of the community through environmental protection and revenue generation.

The US federal government has supported CAMPFIRE, principally through the United States Agency for International Development, or [[USAID]]. CAMPFIRE received $7.6 million initially and $20.5 million in 1994 from USAID.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Hasler|first=Richard|date=|title=An Overview of the Social, Ecological and Economic Achievements and Challenges of Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE programme|url=http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/7796IIED.pdf|journal=Evaluating Eden Series Discussion Paper No 3|volume=|pages=1–22|via=}}</ref> USAID did not renew its funding once their commitment ended in 2000.<ref name=":1" />

== Results ==

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As a result of CAMPFIRE, wildlife monitoring has increased but remains inconsistent and focused on large species, such as elephants.<ref name=":1" /> CAMPFIRE manages wildlife populations by maintaining a certain agreed upon hunting quota; the quotas take both species endangerment and sex ratios into account to maintain wildlife populations, since hunters tend to selectively hunt male animals for sport.<ref name=":6" /> CAMPFIRE has experimented with moving wildlife populations to different wards to benefit communities with lower populations and reduce wildlife competition within certain areas.<ref name=":6" /> 

Because benefits were clearly linked to wildlife, CAMPFIRE helped to develop positive attitudes surrounding animal conservation; in districts, celebrations around the opening of grinding mills and other community projects would be accompanied by performances with animal costumes.<ref name=":4" /> Villagers are more likely to report neighbors for illegal poaching activity.<ref name=":5" /> Surveys have found that public awareness campaigns funded by CAMPFIRE revenues have been effective in reducing harmful community behavior, such as indiscriminate tree cutting and damaging fishing techniques.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Montana|first=M.|date=|title=Environmental awareness and biodiversity conservation among resettled communal farmers in Gwayi Valley Conservation Area, Zimbabwe|url=|journal=International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology|volume=23|pages=242–250|via=}}</ref>

== Criticisms ==

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Following Zimbabwe's economic downturn in the 2000s, CAMPFIRE experienced a greater degree of elite capture, with villagers reporting that council positions and CAMPFIRE-related employment opportunities being held by friends and family members of sitting councillors.<ref name=":5" /> RDCs have retained an increasing percentage of CAMPFIRE revenues and are criticized for being unresponsive to local concerns.<ref name=":3" /> In some areas, the communal projects are initiated but are not sustained, while the income from CAMPFIRE revenues is insufficient to substitute agricultural income.<ref name=":2" />

Villagers express concern that wildlife protection supersedes their own safety and livelihood strategies. Some wards have restricted immigration, settlement expansion, and the use of natural resources.<ref name=":0" /> Physical restrictions on land expansion bar villagers from accessing more fertile land.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Jocelyn|date=2002|title=Wildlife and politics: CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe|url=|journal=Development and Change|volume=31|issue=3|pages=605–627|doi=10.1111/1467-7660.00169}}</ref> Villagers have expressed that wildlife presents safety concerns for themselves, crops, and livestock.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Harrison|first=Elizabeth P.|date=2015|title=Impacts of natural resource management programmes on rural livelihoods in Zimbabwe - the ongoing legacies of CAMPFIRE|url=https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/conference/papers/2015/Harrison_PSA2015_Paper_Livelihoods.pdf|journal=Pacific Sociological Association Conference|volume=|pages=1–31|via=}}</ref>

==See also==

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| title = Wildlife Protection Gets a Tough Probe

| work = Christian Science Monitor

| accessdateaccess-date = 2012-11-29

| date = 1993-06-22

| url = http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/0EB41E559C3D605B/49A2E19BE58747EE91F5ACB8D85A7A48?s_lang

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| title = African trip draws criticism

| work = USA Today

| accessdateaccess-date = 2012-11-29

| date = 2000-01-20

| url = http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/127D6E42D3238D28/49A2E19BE58747EE91F5ACB8D85A7A48?s_lang

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| title = Stampeding toward ivory and irony

| work = San Diego Union-Tribune

| accessdateaccess-date = 2012-11-29

| date = 1997-05-08

| url = http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/116C4B678DB05AB0/49A2E19BE58747EE91F5ACB8D85A7A48?s_lang