ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes some case-study approaches to landscape and networks through Historical Ecology. It focuses on Great Zimbabwe and Limpopo National Park respectively, discussing the Historical Ecology of place and landscape in relation to heritage and conservation. Historically informed understanding of landscape dynamics allows to better understand the interaction of diverse patterns and processes on various scales making it crucial for landscape management. Long-term understanding of landscapes challenges “wilderness ideals,” and opens up opportunities for co-management and collaboration. The chapter reviews existing knowledge of Great Zimbabwe and its landscape and discusses how the Historical Ecology of Great Zimbabwe is relevant to heritage conservation. Most African ecosystems thus need to be understood as “constructed” or “domesticated” landscapes in which nature is as much part of the human sphere as humans are of nature. African ecosystems have been shaped over millennia by diverse interactions between changing climatic conditions, biophysical variables and ever-increasing human interventions.
