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Drifting Rhinos and Fluid Properties: The Turn to Wildlife Production in Western Zimbabwe
Author(s) -
Suzuki Yuka
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/1471-0366.00020
Subject(s) - wildlife , livestock , context (archaeology) , geography , tourism , production (economics) , resource (disambiguation) , property rights , natural resource economics , capital (architecture) , wildlife management , agroforestry , business , political science , ecology , economics , forestry , environmental science , biology , computer network , macroeconomics , archaeology , computer science , law
This paper presents and analyzes a number of tensions that arose in the shift from extensive livestock production to wildlife ranching and tourism in a dispersed community of white farmers in western Zimbabwe. It sketches the broader context of that shift and considers some of its effects, including those on the small (black)farmers of neighbouring Communal Areas. The tensions highlighted and manifested between the ranchers of Mlilo include the necessary movement from a characteristic view of wildlife as ‘vermin’, destructive of the conditions for livestock (and crop) production, to an appreciation that they are an exploitable and valuable resource (‘ecological capital’); and how inherited views and practices concerning the boundaries of private landed property are subverted by the demands of wildlife ranching.