Borderland migration, mining and transfrontier conservation: questions of belonging along the Zimbabwe–Mozambique border

Abstract

Various critiques of transboundary natural resource governance in southern Africa have questioned the efficacy and social equity dimensions of prevailing strategies for protecting transnational ecosystems, highlighting the importance of sociological research on the potentially 'other-ing' impacts of mainstream conservation policy discourse. We draw on research in the Chimanimani Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) on both sides of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border, scrutinizing simplifications inherent in terms such as ''illegal foreigners'' that obfuscate histories and contemporary realities of cross-border social ties. Engaging perspectives of park authorities and chiefs as well as people who have taken up artisanal mining, we explore two related themes-how 'belonging' is negotiated as well as how conservation agendas are instrumentalized by state and non-state actors. Bringing attention to gaps between policy discourses surrounding TFCAs and territorialized practices of exclusion, the article concludes by calling for greater attention to the mutating significance of colonially established boundaries as well as the dynamic influences of social networks in borderland spaces.

The aesthetic turn in border studies: Visual geographies of power, contestation and subversion

“…But maps have also been crucial for exporting the European state model during the imperial and colonial eras, when cartographic representations of African settings as blank spaces legitimised partition regardless of existing indigenous geographies (Bassett, 1994;Kachena & Spiegel, 2019;Ramutsindela, 2010). Cartography has been crucial for crystallising hierarchical relationships between Europe and these colonized geographical entities, and still today shapes imaginaries of the European Union by naturalising particular boundary reconfigurations (Bueno Lacy & Van Houtum, 2015).…”

“…The intertwinement between cartography and state power is exemplified by the development of the modern European state, which maps have supported by enabling rulers to transform previously ill‐defined dynastic realms into clear‐cut territorial units and naturalise them to the wider public (Biggs, 1999). But maps have also been crucial for exporting the European state model during the imperial and colonial eras, when cartographic representations of African settings as blank spaces legitimised partition regardless of existing indigenous geographies (Bassett, 1994; Kachena & Spiegel, 2019; Ramutsindela, 2010). Cartography has been crucial for crystallising hierarchical relationships between Europe and these colonized geographical entities, and still today shapes imaginaries of the European Union by naturalising particular boundary reconfigurations (Bueno Lacy & Van Houtum, 2015).…”

COVID-19, lockdown and peasants in Zimbabwe

“…Unlike registered small-scale indigenous gold mines that, by law, are required to observe COVID-19 prevention and containment regulations including screening, sanitisation, physical distancing and fumigation of the premises, enforcing these in artisanal gold mining areas is difficult mainly due to their informal character and, while acknowledging differences, resistance and low perception of risk. The miners are usually in conflict with law enforcement agents (Kachena and Spiegel 2019) and public health practitioners, making enforcement and delivery of public health education and promotion problematic. In a different context, informal mining areas are widely emphasised as hotspots for the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Zimbabwe (see Kounta et al 2019).…”

Making conservation sustainable under unfavourable conditions: the case of Chimanimani National Reserve, Mozambique

“…Mozambican security forces attempted to evict the intruders and managed to reduce the number of miners to approximately 2,000, but they were dispersed even more widely throughout the core zone (Ndunguru, Dondeyne, and Mulaboa 2006). While the traditional authorities were mostly hostile toward alien miners, they did not object to the activity itself -unless it took place in or too close to sacred locations (Kachena and Spiegel 2018).…”

“…While it facilitates access to markets, improved road connection is not only a blessing, as it has augmented the influx of immigrants from other areas and clearing of new lands for agriculture. Although the traditional chief of Moribane claimed that he does not accept new immigrants to his area (Interview, M'Punga, 18.12.2015), this has apparently not prevented the influx, which has caused friction within the community (Kachena and Spiegel 2018;cf. Virtanen 2003).…”