Chronicle Editor
Fortunes Matutu
TRADITIONAL leaders play an essential role in managing natural resources and ensuring environmental sustainability. It is critical that the nation at large assimilates and embraces this important role.
In general, traditional leadership is organised into chiefs, headmen, and village heads. In rural areas, village heads are physically closest to the people and have the most interactions with them. They provide societal, economic, cultural, and religious leadership that is fundamental to the daily administration of their areas, including the management of natural resources.
In Zimbabwe, 68pc of the population lives in the rural areas while communal forests cover 40pc of the total forest area.
Therefore, the best approach to sustainable natural resources management needs to be community-based and participatory with traditional leaders playing an important role. With sound and effective traditional leadership, community-based natural resources management can be achieved.
Using their indigenous knowledge systems, they can create effective by-laws and moderate traditional customs to manage their natural resources and environment.
Our culture and traditions have strict eco-friendly laws governing the despoliation of sacred sites, forests, water bodies, wetlands and caves. These cultural values in the yesteryears kept our forests and environment lavish, abundant and highly productive across the ecosystem.
Contrary to popular belief, the law still recognises a significant role for traditional leaders when it comes to natural resources management. This goes against the common belief that the emergence of new statutes has reduced their powers.
In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new Constitution that recognises the role of traditional leaders in working alongside State structures. The constitution allocates the power to administer communal land to traditional leaders and furthermore regards traditional authorities as primary agents of development in their areas. They are seen as the representatives of the community and as such are entrusted with an important responsibility of harmonising community customs and traditions with the law.
The Traditional Leaders Act recognises local leaders as custodians of natural resources. The Act empowers traditional leaders to control the exploitation of natural resources, unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing and the indiscriminate destruction of flora and fauna. It is their responsibility to prevent any unauthorised settlements and to approve any new settlements in their territory.
This role is significant given that traditional leaders are better placed to promote natural resources management since they are closer to people and understand their way of life. In addition, they serve as intermediaries between State and non-State actors, coordinating natural resource management and development.
Traditional leaders play an important role in resolving disputes and conflicts in communal areas. The Constitution recognises this role by giving traditional leaders the power to resolve disputes amongst people in their communities in accordance with customary law.
Jurisdiction of these courts is not only limited to civil cases but can also preside over natural resources management offences.
Local institutions are empowered to formulate by-laws for the management of natural resources and the environment within their jurisdictions using the Communal Land Forest Produce Act and the Environmental Management Act.
The police are called in for serious criminal cases, high-level offences, and repeat offenders.
The roles of traditional leaders, together with advisors and committees, are critical for planning, implementing, and partnering in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM).
In addition to promoting the conservation of natural resources, CBNRM enables communities to generate income that can be used for rural development; and promotes democracy and good governance in local institutions.
Involving traditional leaders in the natural resource planning process makes the plan more responsive to local needs, ensuring ownership and full participation.
Traditional leaders are expected to ensure that traditional values are observed with respect to natural resources. They have provided spiritual and cultural leadership to their respective communities for many generations. In their respective communities, they are the custodians of culture, customs, traditions, as well as indigenous knowledge.
From indigenous knowledge systems, we learn sustainable harvesting practices and how to use natural resources. As part of this, there are myths and beliefs about how natural resources should be handled to ensure sustainability.
However, traditional leaders’ role as cultural leaders is slowly put at risk by the conduct of some people who go against traditional values and customs.
Resources are decreasing as the population increases, the land is becoming scarcer, and different cultures are mixing into one settlement, making it difficult to practise traditional customs.
Some tribes and ethnic groups view traditional resource management systems of other groups as demonic, ancient, retrograde and uncivilised. These individuals question the suitability of traditional leaders to oversee natural resource management. There is now a growing demand for scientific explanations, proofs, and reliability, which goes against the norms, customs, taboos and myths that support traditional leaders in community-based natural resource management.
The dilution or merging of cultures across communities caused by globalisation and modernisation is also a significant threat to the cultural role of traditional leaders. Their areas of influence are shrinking due to urbanisation.
Further complicating the situation is the confusion of roles between the central Government, local government agencies, and traditional community structures.
Despite this, traditional leaders in rural areas remain the most accessible and immediate form of local government. Their resilience and strength have been invaluable in natural resource management for generations.
Going forward, traditional leaders must be supported in bringing together a variety of actors involved in natural resources management, while Government institutions provide a broader enabling environment.
Traditional institutions need to be modernised and strengthened so that they can respond to changing conditions with greater agility. We can accomplish this through capacity building, training, dialogue, and planning together.
Fortunes Matutu is a forester with the Forestry Commission and has a special interest in social forestry.
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