Managing Zimbabwe’s Wildlife A Comparison of Community and Private Conservation Approaches

Zimbabwe’s community-based conservation model, which brings together peasant farmers in a tourism-focused approach to wildlife management, has not reduced the community’s poaching pressure on wildlife stocks in the protected area of Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) as much as intended. Comparing this model with a conservation model involving private commercial farmers who also operate on the edge of the reserves and derive income from ecotourism shows that initiatives thrive when farmers invest in their conservancy (for instance, by providing their own labour and capital) and can write their own management rules.