ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the underlying relationship between land tenure and natural resource utilisation on one A1 farm. The Fast Track Land Reform Programme was a spontaneous, unplanned, haphazard and violent way of 'grabbing' land from the commercial white farmers. The natural resource base that regularly sustains human livelihoods has for many years been the focus of debates and research, including in relation to Zimbabwe. Resettlement in Sovelele follows a villagised model, such that the new emergent communities are organised in villages where they share common resources. Natural resources are central to the livelihoods of the new A1 farmers, as they lived off different forms of these resources. Post-fast track resettlement communities on A1 farms have had in essence use rights of land only without any power to either transfer the rights to other people, or to exclude others. Secure tenure in particular is crucial in ensuring that the goals of both community-level development and natural resources conservation are met.
