Zimbabwe national conservation strategy and sustainable rural development

Abstract

For rural development to be sustainable in southern Africa it must go hand in hand with environmental conservation, which has been neglected. The author draws on first‐hand professional experience in Zimbabwe as a member of a UN technical assistance team to examine how the internationally recognised concepts of environmental management can be translated into a coherent planning approach through which disadvantaged rural communities can break out of their socio‐economic deprivation and environmental decline. The article emphasises the need to seek the most appropriate local solutions for environmental problems and stresses that satisfactory theoretical understanding of these problems has yet to be matched by comprehensive and workable development strategies.

Notes

Development planning specialist, Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Helpful comments and suggestions by two anonymous evaluators are duly acknowledged.