ABSTRACT
Although not well documented, there is some evidence that elaborate resource management systems prevailed among indigenous African people before the arrival of European colonists. Traditional institutions such as kings, chiefs, headmen and healers played an important role in regulating and monitoring resource use. Examples include the royal hunting preserves of the amaZulu and amaSwati people, and the kgotla system of land management practised by the Batswana people.
It is too often assumed that the traditional systems were characterized by a free-for-all anarchic exploitation of resources. While it is possible that in some exceptionally richly endowed regions with very sparse populations the regulatory may have been minimal or even non-existent, most communities had evolved systems which in varying degrees conserved resources and ensured their equitable distribution among households ( Ghai, 1992 ).
