Title:
LAND OWNERSHIP A HUMAN/WILDLIFE CONFLICT: IMPLICATIONS FOR NYANGA NATIONAL PARK AS A TOURIST DESTINATION

Authors:
Winnet Masikati ,Zimbabwe

Abstract:
This study explored the implications of landownership in Zimbabwe as a factor motivating humanwildlife conflict and its’ implications for Nyanga National Park as a tourist destination. Previous studies have overlooked land ownership and its implications for tourism. Impacts of human-human conflict on wild-life for tourism have also been side-lined. This study was guided by Qualitative research philosophy. Data gathered was guided by a Historical document analysis to access the past as a basis for understanding the present. Longitudinal document analysis traced political changes and developments in Nyanga. Documents were in the official public domain hence content validation was based on the consensus of different historical sources. Interviews with key informants confirmed events and enhanced interpretation. The study found political land ownership events contributing to the destruction of wild and aquatic tourist attractions in Nyanga. Freedom of settlement reduced area for Nyanga National Park tourism activities. In 1890, Lippert Concession granted Nyanga land and its Wildlife to a few privileged Whites against the African inhabitants. Whites’ sophisticated weapons killed more animals than the Africans who were forced to crowd in Tribal Trust Lands (TTLs). The move broke the symbiotic relationship between Africans and their wildlife in Nyanga. Their settlement in TTLs had new forms of conflicts as human and wildlife tried to understand each other in a new habitat. Park boundaries cut off Africans from their ancestral places of worship like the Mtarazi falls, water and mountain spirits. Their medicinal plants like zumbani which reduces chances for Covid -19 were enclosed in the name of animal protection. Anyone who entered the park for medicinal plants was classified as a poacher and arrested. Unjust land redistribution in 1930: Blacks got 22%, Animals 27% and Whites 51%, marginalised human livelihoods triggering poaching as a natural form of aggressive retaliation to the unjust land ownership. The Native husbandry Act (1951-1961) drastically reduced livestock among the blacks, forcing them to resort to wildlife for meat. Overcrowding Africans in TTls increased human-wildlife interactions and its conflicts. A period of land ownership conflict subjected tourism attraction species to extinction. For Nyanga National Park to thrive as a tourist attraction centre, locals should own the land, its’ wild and aquatic life. Study recommends local community ownership of land for the development of Nyanga National Park as a tourist resort.