Invasive alien plants and rural livelihoods: a case of Gwanda District, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Dube, Nqobizitha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Cylindropuntia fulgida , Invasive plants -- Economic aspects , Invasive plants -- Control , Invasive plants -- Economic aspects -- Zimbabwe , Ecosystem services -- Zimbabwe , Environmental policy -- Zimbabwe , Ecosystem management -- Zimbabwe , Cactus -- Economic aspects -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4368 , vital:20653
- Description: Biodiversity is the cornerstone of ecosystem functioning and the realisation that most rural African community livelihoods are directly dependent on ecosystem goods and services warrants its conservation. Invasive alien plants threaten biodiversity and compromise the ecosystem's ability to provide goods and services for rural communities, thereby negatively affecting livelihood strategies. Information on IAPs is lacking in most African countries, thus, the livelihood effects of Invasive Alien Plants (IAPs) are not clearly understood. In Zimbabwe, Cylindropuntia fulgida var. fulgida (Cff) has invaded Gwanda district in the Matabeleland south province compromising local household capital assets that contribute to livelihood strategies and altering the ecosystem. This study exposed the rural worldview of the environment, the effect that Cff has on local livelihood strategies and the effectiveness environmental management institutions in rural Gwanda district. The study followed a post positivist paradigm. The impacts of IAPs on rural communities in Zimbabwe were analysed by looking at the livelihood stresses that arise because of Cff. The research used multi-stage sampling to select a representative sample of respondents. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires, group discussion and key informant guides. Furthermore, document analysis was conducted to collect secondary data. The data analysis process used Computer packages Microsoft Excel, SPSS and NVIVO. Results showed that livelihood benefits that species in the natural environment provide strongly influence environmental perceptions of rural African communities. Additionally, the study showed that Cff compromises the local ecosystem and reduces its ability to support the dominant livelihoods in the study area. The long-term result of such a situation in the absence of control is increased poverty and the failure to realise sustainable development. However, results indicated that IAPs could also improve the poverty situation of a community before they have reached the threshold points. It is therefore imperative to know the threshold points of an invasive plant in order to ascertain the efficient point to intervene. The study also showed that benefits of invasive plants accrue to different members of a society at different times (private/public). This knowledge allows the adoption of efficient and effective control strategies.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Perceptions of the natural environment from a rural African perspective: a case of Cylondropuntia fulgida var. fulgida in Gwanda district, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Dube, Nqobizitha , Snowball, Jeanette D , Fraser, Gavin C G
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68578 , vital:29289 , http://2015.essa.org.za/fullpaper/essa_2994.pdf
- Description: Publisher version , Community environmental perceptions are instrumental in environmental management programmes given that perspectives govern human-environment relations. Despite numerous studies on environmental perceptions, little is known about how the rural poor particularly in Africa conceptualize, live with, and respond to pressing environmental issues facing them. As such, this paper uses the case of an invasive alien plant (IAP) (Cylindropuntia fulgida var. fulgida (Cff)) in a rural community (Gwanda district, Zimbabwe) to unveil the conceptualisation of the natural environment from a rural African perspective. This paper discloses the environmental worldview of the community and explains the formulation of the attitudes by the local households towards species in the environment. The study uses two horizontal dimensions of environmental attitudes formulation (New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Scale and Kellet’s (1996) classification of environmental values). Data was collected using a questionnaire survey, group discussions and key informant interviews. A sample of 156 individuals comprised the study respondents. Results showed the residents of rural Gwanda district to hold both a conservation and utilisation conviction (syncretic view) towards the environment. However, utilisation outweighs conservation. Furthermore, older residents are more inclined to conservation in comparison to the youth. The study also divulged that the origin of a species in the natural environment was insignificant to the host community. However, the livelihood effects that species had (regardless of origins) were the major determinants of attitudes developed towards it.
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- Date Issued: 2015