The Forest Assemblage

Forests are important as a key biodiversity operator, providing habitat for different kinds of animals. At the same time the livelihoods of people living in the KAZA TFCA (Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area) are highly dependent on natural resources coming from the forests. The KAZA TFCA comprises a total of 85 forest reserves, the majority of which are Kalahari Sands Woodlands and teak forests. Despite efforts to protect the forests, southern African countries are experiencing increasing deforestation. Especially the Western Province of Zambia and its valuable teak forests have increasingly become the target of logging companies in recent years. Forest resource management and conservation strategies in Barotseland (today Zambia’s Western Province) in pre-colonial times were influenced by traditional authorities. During the colonial era in Zambia, the management of forest resources in Barotseland was structured around the indunas (traditional leaders) who worked closely with the Provincial Forestry Officer. Simultaneously, the colonial regime exploited the teak forests for wood in construction and for railway sleepers. After Zambia’s independence, a new forestry policy repealed the rights of local communities to manage forest resources which became state owned. The research project deals with the historical roots of forest conservation as well as with the history of rights of extraction and the impacts of increasing centralized control over natural resources on local rural livelihoods in the Western Province of Zambia. It specifically addresses changing local uses, knowledge-practices and values of specific tree species and forest products.

Research questions for WP 9 include:

1.How did the forest landscapes transform through the history of extraction and of conservation? Which impact had the changing forest landscape, changing ecological, economic, and political conditions on local rural livelihoods in Zambia’s Western Province?

2. Which impact had colonial and post-independence politics of forest resource management and diverse conservation ideologies on the local uses and knowledge of forests and forest products?

3. How are various forest resources and tree species valued? What makes specific tree species valuable? How do these values change over time and space, and how have these changing values affected the worlds that people and forests inhabit?