ABSTRACT
Since environmental sustainability is about the relationship between people and the physical resource base, the next section examines literature that addresses the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation. The section also discusses the analytical framework of the study, namely environmental security (Barnett, 2001). The context of the study is provided in the form of a historical account of how successive governments in Zimbabwe have tried to address environmental degradation. The empirical section that follows is made up of two cases that are situated in one and the same catchment area. The first case deals with gold panning, which in recent times has become a major source of income for a significant segment of Zimbabwe’s population but is blamed for serious degradation of the physical environmental (Maponga and Ngorima, 2003). The case focuses on the actors that are involved, their livelihoods and the attendant environmental impacts. The second case analyses attempts at rehabilitating a gully in the same microcatchment, showing how divergent interests have converged on a local environmental issue, and with what degree of success. The discussion and concluding section focuses on the relationship between livelihood security and environmental sustainability. The section shows that livelihood security is the most important factor determining how the poor relate to the physical environment. Securing livelihoods takes precedence over protecting the physical resource base. The section shows the importance of combining the theory of political ecology and the concept of environmental security in analysing environmental issues. It is important to note that the two cases presented in this chapter to an extent illustrate the connections within the catchment, which are at the one level physical, and at the other level socio-economic. Within the catchment blue water resources are concentrated in the downstream part of the micro-catchment. The ‘largest’ small dam in the catchment, which is shown on Figure 5.1, is located at the downstream end of the micro-catchment, which is logical since the dam captures runoff generated in the upstream parts. There is also a wetland downstream of the catchment. The relative availability of water resources in the downstream part of the Zhulube micro-catchment explains the location of small gardens and the Zhulube irrigation scheme within the micro-catchment. The physical reality of more water availability in the downstream part of the micro-catchment is the reason why it is in the interest of the downstream communities to protect the upper part of the catchment, which is where gully formation and expansion processes are taking place. Social facilities, such as schools, clinics, main roads linking the micro-catchment 16 Another dimension of poverty in Zimbabwe was revealed by the 2003 Poverty Assessment Study Survey (PASS II). The study showed that 72% of the country was living below the Total Consumption Poverty Line (UNDP, 2008). Although the findings of the PASS II study are not comparable to those of the Rural Household Livelihoods Survey which are used in this chapter, they nevertheless give an indication of the extent of poverty in the country through different sets of poverty indicators.
