ABSTRACT
This chapter explores an early example of participatory research into natural resources in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. It includes the elements that explain how participatory research eventually breached the walls of the natural resources, something to which Robert chambers’s work made a major contribution. Participatory methods work well in research on local natural resource use and management. Participatory research has produced scientifically valid data. It has helped natural resource scientists do better science, especially policy relevant science. This utility has been probably the most important factor leading to the acceptance of participatory research in natural science. The first participatory element was participatory mapping. The mapping demonstrated local awareness of deforestation and preferences for where reforestation should be sited, again refuting the popular image of peasant farmers mindlessly swinging axes. The mapping process also revealed social stratification in the form of class and gender.
