An Indigenous Knowledge-Based Approach to Environmental Conservation in Zimbabwe

Environmental conservation efforts have faced several challenges across Africa. In instances where environmentally unsustainable practices such as micro-subsistence artisanal mining have been conceptualised as poverty driven, the availing of alternative livelihoods has nonetheless failed to facilitate their end. Given how these practices are a source of income for many (despite the negative environmental impacts), there is a need for practitioners to examine how sustainable environmental praxis (an amalgam of both the western scientific model and indigenous knowledge systems), can be introduced in such spaces. In examining these issues, original data was collected through questionnaires (distributed to 30 micro-subsistence artisanal miners at Braeside), while two semi-structured in-depth interviews were also held with purposively selected NGO participants. The findings showed how within rural communities (with relatively low literacy levels), an indigenous knowledge-based, multisectoral approach to environmental conservation reaps higher rewards. Due to the agrarian history of most African communal systems, the study noted how there is no shortage of indigenous, conservational knowledge, with implementation being the main challenge. In making small scale artisanal mining align with the sustainable development triangle, recommendations are made for environmentalists to proactively engage artisanal miners in a new paradigm that prioritises local knowledge and collaborative community-based initiatives.