Governing Communal Forests in Rural Zimbabwe: The Incentive Mechanisms Embedded Within Governance Structures

ACTOR TYPE	ACTOR NAME	NUMBER OF INTERVIEWEES
Rural households	Chiredzi Ward 11 (Chikombedzi) and Mwenezi Ward 13 (Masaswe/Chingwizi)	22
Traditional leaders (village heads)		11
Non-governmental organizations	(PhytoTrade Africa, SAFIRE, Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe).	4
Private traders (individual business owners)	Afrideli, B’Ayoba, Chipundo produce, Innscor, Tulimara-SFA, Utsanzi and 2 vendors.	8
Governmental organizations	Forestry Commission, Environment Management Agency	4

Table 2

Summary of findings.

MECHANISM	GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES	DETAILS	GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES
Moral mechanism	Taboos and norms	Indigenous fruit trees are not cut Traditional rainmaking ceremonies under sacred trees culturally NTFPs are not supposed to be sold	applicable to the natives thus leaving outsiders.
Moral mechanism	Social relationships and reciprocity	an area under the jurisdiction of one chief sometimes ignores village boundaries	absent or limited state presence.
Material mechanism	Multilateral environmental agreements	Zimbabwe became party to the UNCBD which paved way for the access to funds from GEF Small Grants Program (GEF/SGP)	parallel power structures created to meet legal requirements are causing problems of allegiance and legitimacy. lack or low demand of the NTFP, the projects or both difficult to work in groups to establish enterprises for processing and marketing for some NTFPs due to spiritual beliefs and magic practices; and taboos
Material mechanism	Programs and projects	Southern Africa Regional Natural Resources Management Project NRMP I (1989-1994) was fully financed by USAID The UNDP/GEF supported the implementation of the activities mentioned in the NBSAP through the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Traditional Medicinal Plants in Zimbabwe Project
Mutual reassurance mechanism	Safety standards	EU novel foods approval, Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), most companies request results from laboratories in South Africa, only a few accept results from local laboratories at Standards Association of Zimbabwe	membership is conditional for trading highly prescriptive and technically burdensome which breeds a tendency to trade NTFPs through the informal channels which are barely monitored the costs to local collectors who want to regularize production, processing and marketing are exorbitant
	Sustainability standards	verified assurance of ethical sourcing, sustainable harvesting, organic certification and fair trading
	Internal audit measures	BÁyoba has set up an internal control system for members PhytoTrade works with members through their pre-qualified supplier (PQS) system
Empowerment mechanism	Coalitions	The Southern African Marula oil producers’ network was formed to enable the sustainable marketing of Marula oil products PhytoTrade Africa was formed to promote trade in novel indigenous plant derived ingredients or natural products PhytoTrade Africa also ensures that natural products have legitimate Intellectual Property and Access and Benefit Sharing arrangements for its members	projects were started but not completed due to lack of funds uptake by other donors failed except for a few isolated cases
Empowerment mechanism	Capacity development	SAFIRE with funding from Liechtensteinischer Entwicklungsdienst (LED)-Zimbabwe are supporting the Carbon reduction project in Chiredzi