Green Colonialism in Zimbabwe, 1890-1980 By Vimbai Kwashirai

Conservation is concerned first and foremost with making difficult choices and finding an acceptable, stable balance between different and competing demands on resources. Poore postulates that land resources and population needs can reach equilibrium through sustainable and humane planning.²³ Rietbergen describes balance as the “art of the possible”, arguing that balance between development and conservation can be found if forest management is conducted with an awareness of socioeconomic and environmental contexts.²⁴ However, there is no single way to achieve balance that is valid for all nations at all times. Pressures of agriculture and the demand for more food and fuel mean that balanced resource utilisation is an elusive and moving target.²⁵ The scope of the exploitation or preservation in an area is determined by the prevailing economic and social contexts, the relation between resources and population, and the standard of living and distribution of wealth in a given country.

These insights are valuable in an assessment of past relationships within the forested zones of Zimbabwe. Prior to colonialism, forest exploitation and conservation were pursued in very different manners, as explored in chapter 2. Late nineteenth-century African communities in the Zambezi teak woodland would certainly not have survived in an environment stripped of trees, bush, and grass. Teak woodlands were essential for their survival and livelihood. In precolonial times, indigenous inhabitants of the region realised the value of land and forest and accepted the creation of royal or sacred forests from which wood for canoes, hut construction, and firewood could be obtained.²⁶ Such areas provided goods such as honey, medicine, and fruit. Findings here are in agreement with those of scholars such as Mtisi, McGregor, Clarke, and Matose, who have stated that customary management practices of wild fauna and flora were based on rules, beliefs, and taboos enforced by religious and political leaders, notably spirit mediums. Disobeying such guidelines was believed to cause drought, famine, and disease.²⁷ The nature of local customary practices and their enforcement by leaders were not uniform and varied by community and available natural resources. These traditions, more flexible than codified written laws,