Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

258 Palm utilisation for basketry in Xini Ward, Sengwe communal areas, Zimbabwe

Policy framework

Government regulations influencing the production of crafts from palm leaves

are enshrined in the Rural District Councils Act of 1988, Natural Resources Act

chapter 20:13 of 1996 and most importantly the Communal Land Forest Produce

Act chapter 19:04 of 1987 (Table 4). The Communal Land Forest Produce Act

regulates the exploitation and protection of forest produce within communal

lands. The act specifically permits the exploitation of these produces for

household use and can only be commercialised through a permit or license.

The permits or licenses are issued and monitored by the respective Rural

District Councils (in this case the Chiredzi RDC) in consultation with the Forestry

Commission. These regulations exist in theory but rarely has their effect been

realised in the Sengwe area.

TRENDS AND ISSUES

SAFIRE and ENDA-Zimbabwe introduced financial, technical and institutional

support to the Sengwe basketry industry. During the early to mid-1990s ENDA-

Zimbabwe worked to promote commercialisation of palm products as well as

infrastructural development in the form of marketing and administrative

structures. The training subsequently provided focused mainly on product

development, marketing and financial management.

SAFIRE moved into the area in the late 1990s providing institutional

development support in terms of establishment of processors’ organisational

structures and natural resources management systems to ensure the sustainable

utilisation of the palm. The linking of the Sengwe community to outside markets

has resulted in a shift in craft production. In the early days this community

used to produce big artefacts, which were easy to use in case there were no

buyers. This scenario resulted in lots of craft ware piling up in houses and

deteriorating beyond marketable standards. Now the community has organised

marketing and produces on order. Most of these orders are for artefacts smaller

than the traditional large utility baskets.

If the craft industry is to survive some management strategies should be

employed to enhance, or at least maintain, the palm stocking levels. This was

Stakeholder Producers Average Labour Market Average

group and (%) production inputs prices income

product per producer (hours (US$ per per producer

household, per item) item) household,

1998 1998 (US$)

Fruit baskets 40 14 12 1.45 6.37

Shopping baskets 32 6 16 1.82 3.64

Winnowing baskets 32 8 11 3.64 6.37

Overall 9.5 2.46 14.8

Table 3. Baskets production and income analysis

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