Baikiaea plurijuga forests, also known as ‘Kalahari Sand’ forests or ’Zambezi Teak’ forests, are endemic to the Kalahari sand geologic formation in western Zimbabwe. The protected forests, comprising of over 800 000 ha, are managed by the FC. They are managed for the production of commercial timber and wildlife, the protection of the fragile Kalahari sand system and for biodiversity conservation. Commercial logging of the KS teak forests primarily for B. plurijuga, Pterocarpus angolensis, Guibourtia coleosperma and Afzelia quanzensis has been described as the greatest threat to their survival. In addition, the hot dry season brings with it widespread destructive forest fires. In the past few decades the subsistence needs of the rural and peri-urban populations are threatening the future survival, functions and development of the forests. Their existence and current status can be attributed to the long history of state protection. However, state protection of the forests has not succeeded in preventing them from destruction and degradation as local people increasingly became dependent on them through time.
Since they were gazetted2 the management approach in these forests has consisted mainly in only allowing formal public use through licences and permits. The management activities include protection from fire, supervision of forest utilisation programmes, veldt management to improve wildlife habitat, research on various aspects of the forests, wildlife management, silviculture, control of forest occupants and Anti-poaching activities.
The protected forests of western Zimbabwe, hereafter the ‘KS teak forests’, represent a unique natural forest ecosystem with complex ecological attributes and an interesting historical background with respect to the management and exploitation of the principal commercial timber species, Baikiaea plurijuga, Pterocarpus angolensis, Guibourtia coleosperma and Afzelia quanzensis. Broadly, the KS teak forests are restricted to deep, loose and well-drained Kalahari sand of western Zimbabwe, south-eastern Angola, northern Botswana, north-western Namibia and south-western Zambia (Figure 1). Baikiaea is an African genus with four other species confined to the tropical lowland rain forests of west central Africa – the Guineo-Congolian flora region, the fifth in miombo woodland in eastern Tanzania, and the sixth, Baikiaea plurijuga, confined to the Kalahari sand of southern central Africa (Brummitt, 1986).
The first forest policy statement with respect to these KS teak forests was proposed in 1921 and submitted to the government in 1924. The policy called for the establishment of forest reserves, the provision of funds for protection and for the closer supervision of timber exploitation. In this regard, under the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, the first forests, Gwaai and Ngamo, were gazetted in 1930. The rest of the forests were gazetted between 1940 and 1954 under various amendments to this Act. The Forest Act of 1949 and the Forest Amendment Act of 1953 gave birth to the Forestry Commission (FC) in 1954. The last revision of the extent of the various forest reserves was made in 1969 describing the area of the protected forests totalling 847 419 ha.
These KS teak forests are distinguished from other savannah, woodland and forest formations by the dominance of the genus Baikiaea plurijuga in the family Leguminosae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae. The genus Baikiaea is named after William Balfour Baikie, a missionary-doctor-naturalist of West Africa (Brummitt, 1986). Amongst other distinctive features are the species associated with Baikiaea plurijuga for example, Pterocarpus angolensis, Guibourtia coleosperma and Schinziophyton rautanenii. The last two species are endemic to Kalahari sands together with Baikiaea plurijuga.
Figure 1. Distribution of Kalahari Sand teak forests in southern central Africa
(Source: Huckabay, 1986).
Protected KS teak forests perform a number of functions that include the protection of the fragile Kalahari sand, the protection of catchment areas for rivers that pass through the forests and flow into the Zambezi River, the provision of wildlife habitat, the conservation of biological diversity and the provision of timber and non-timber products. Over-exploitation of the forests for commercial use has been described as the greatest threat to their survival. The loss of the KS teak forests is especially worrying because unlike other savannah forest and woodland formations they are the more fragile forests in the sense that their soils (Kalahari sands) are easily degraded once the vegetation cover is removed. There are doubts whether the forests can ever be restored to their former climax, magnificence and productivity.
Protected forests have traditionally been used for the production and utilisation of commercial timber and wildlife. Through the national forest legal statutes these forests have been strictly protected from unauthorised uses. Their existence and current status can be attributed to the long history of state protection and prudent management practices.
The initial motivation for gazetting the forests was to control the wanton harvesting of the commercial indigenous timber species, mainly Baikiaea plurijuga (Zambezi teak) and Pterocarpus angolensis (mukwa). Timber of these species was mainly used to produce railway sleepers, furniture and mine props. Currently the species are commercially used for various forms of flooring, furniture, veneer and plywood.
The early objectives of gazetting the forest reserves included (a) a general preservationist ethic that prevailed in colonial times which saw huge forest areas being gazetted as protected areas (McGregor, 1991); (b) the forests were considered to be unique as conservation areas, as they are the only example in the country of extensive forest formations on Kalahari sands (Mujakachi, 1992); (c) gazetting provided for the protection of timber stocks, particularly for the mining industry; and (d) they were also gazetted for the protection of water catchments of the upper reaches of the Gwaai, Umgusa, Bembesi, Gwampa, Shangani, Lutope, Sengwa, Kana and Mbumbusi Rivers and tributaries. These rivers flow into the Zambezi River, and this was an especially pertinent concern in the 1950s when the Kariba Dam was constructed on the Zambezi River (Mujakachi, 1992).
When the forests were gazetted and protected there were subsistence African farmers resident in most of them. Initially, these farmers were allowed to stay. The African farmer populations were considered a ready source of labour for fire protection. Later, in the early 1970s the population of the forests had increased and the FC made a decision to select households that were allowed to reside in the forests under a forest tenant basis. Households that were not selected were evicted from the forests. Forest tenant management became one of the major forest management activities. By 1985 the population of forest tenants had increased to unmanageable proportions. Illegal settlers encroaching into the forests exacerbated the situation. At that time a policy decision was made to evict all households from the forests. To this day households resident in protected forests are all considered illegal settlers despite the early ownership arrangements for some of them.
The management of wildlife in protected forests started in the late 1960s when wildlife was afforded protection similar to that resident in national parks. Wildlife management activities involved anti-poaching patrols, introductions, game censuses, the provision of water and salt licks and manipulation of some particular habitats. Wildlife management also saw the development of tourism activities such as safari hunting and photographic safaris. Apart from timber harvesting, wildlife utilisation is currently a major revenue-generating activity in protected forests.
Since the time they were gazetted, as well as before, protected forests have been major sources of a diverse range of services and goods including grazing, poles for construction, firewood, thatch grass, traditional medicines, honey, wild fruits, edible caterpillars and mushrooms. These products are particularly important to the livelihoods of rural communities living adjacent to the forests.
For a long time after forest management was instituted in western Zimbabwe, forest research featured very little in the management of the forests. One of the earliest research projects was Project E46 the aim of which was ‘The investigation into the effect of fire on regeneration and development of the KS teak forests’. Other research programmes included biodiversity conservation, growth studies of selected indigenous tree species, silviculture and ecology, and protection. Results from most of these research programmes have formed the backbone to the sustainable management of the protected KS teak forests (Judge 1975).
The management and use of the forests have been and are performed within the context of the national forest policy and legal frameworks. The forest policy has guided the development of the forestry sector while forest legislation has supported the implementation of the policy. Protected forest reserves in Zimbabwe are considered state property characterised by state ownership and control, under which other stakeholders, depending on use objectives, may or may not be permitted access (Mohamed Katerere, 2000). People living in or near the protected forests share ownership rights of the forest products with the state, usually in antagonistic circumstances. These circumstances are often mired in conflicts and challenges over the use of forest resources. The challenges are most often not formal legal challenges but acts that violate rules of exclusion and rules governing use as well as acts that test the will and ability of the state to enforce its rules.
2 A forest that has been “set aside” for a particular management objective.
