Summary

Africa has been home to multiple initiatives intended to bring about conservation and development. Colonial governments in Africa divided colonies into various protected areas, which included game reserves, national parks, forestry areas, conservancies and safari areas, the latter existing to cater for elite spot hunting (McKenzie, 1987). In some cases, these wildlife reserves were created through displacement of people. The Chizarira and Chete Safari Area, which were home to the indigenous Tonga people of Zimbabwe are examples of this (Weinrich, 1977; Dzingirai, 1994). These places constituted reserves for meat and other foods for displaced people. 

In the same manner, colonial modernization initiatives were established  at the expense of local people. These initiatives were inclusive of large dam construction(McGregor, 2009), tsetse fly control (McCracken, 1987), mining (McGregor, 2009) and road constructions (Scott and Bhatt, 2002). Like conservation initiatives, these 'hailed' developments  compromised meat sources, in some cases leading to wildlife  extinction (Anderson and Grove, 1987; McCracken, 1987). Given such depriving changes in the context of development and conservation, the main thrust of this research project is on the relationship between protectionism and development on the one hand and meat consumption among local people on the other.

Statement of the problem

Among African scholars. there is ambiguity on whether conservation and development limit or facilitate local people’s access to meat. Some scholars argue that protectionism and development restricted, with time, game  access and use (Anderson and Grove, 1987; Makombe; 1994; Andersson et al, 2013). These scholars say that protectionism and development lead to dependence on alternative sources of meat including rodents and insects. Other scholars disagree, instead  arguing that protectionism and development merely informalized local access to meat (Murphree, 1994; Peterson, 1991; Dzingirai, 2003). In addition to understanding  how conservation and development impact on meat consumption, this study seeks to unlock the persistent meanings that local communities in frontier areas attach to wild meat. The study does this with specific reference to the marginalized Tonga people in Binga district in Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe. The section below breaks down the study’s objectives.

Study Objectives

1. To investigate how conservation and development policies have restricted the Tonga people’s access to game meat.   
2. To identify the alternative sources of meat that are open to the people excluded from protected areas.
3. To examine the diverse strategies employed in the  collection of wild  meat in the frontier area.
4. To assess the social meaning that people attach to wild meat .