Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Chapter 11

Trading forest products in South-

Eastern Zimbabwe: ecology, economics

and politics of woodcarving

Wavell Standa-Gunda^1 and Oliver Braedt^2

ABSTRACT

The commercial use of natural resources to manufacture products for sale to

tourists has become a significant supplementary source of income to rural

people in all areas of Zimbabwe. The use of natural resources to produce

woodcarvings has been controversial because of the volume of wood used and

the impact on woodlands. This article explores some of the baseline data,

which have been gathered under an economic study of the woodcarving industry

along the Masvingo–Beitbridge road. Results of the analysis show that returns

to time invested in carving are higher than from other locally available

alternatives. The growth of the industry is primarily attributed to (a) the

drought years, which forced people to seek alternative livelihood options; (b)

the economic structural adjustment programme that devalued the Zimbabwean

dollar thereby attracting more foreign visitors while at the same time resulting

in loss of jobs especially in the public sector as well as a lowering of real

wages across all sectors as subsidies were removed; (c) the collapse of apartheid

in South Africa and the several years of domestic political stability in Zimbabwe,

which led to a significant increase in tourist traffic between the two countries.

The implications of the results are considered with respect to the sustainability

of this growing sector.

INTRODUCTION

In the past, non-timber forest products (NTFP) were largely used to meet

household requirements. However with changing socio-economic situations,

Common names Part of the Management Degree of Scale of Geographic

resource used transformation trade range

Afzelia, Pod mahogany, Wood Wild Medium International Large

Mukamba

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