Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE public investments: impact on education, adaptation and preferences
type: CreativeWork
description: The thesis investigates household economic and behavioural implications of public investments funded by communal based wildlife management programmes, such as Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe. The thesis focuses on household education and adaptive capacity production. It further investigates determinants of programme stated preferences and behaviour thereof in communal areas of Zimbabwe, using the case of Dande communal area in Mbire district. Since its inception in the late 1980s, there has been debate over the adequacy of the implementation of the CAMPFIRE programme in effecting economic and behavioural change in the respective communities. However, most of the assessments focused on household financial gains, poverty reduction and inequality. Results show that little financial gains accrue to the respective households, with poverty and inequality remaining high. This thesis argues that the main development trajectory in communities implementing communally based wildlife programmes such as CAMPFIRE is biased towards public capital investment; in the form of infrastructure development and respective support for the related services. By design therefore, the programme will have positive impact on access to publicly provided goods and services rather than private goods. By implication, the study further argues that the programme will therefore have varied implications on households' adaptive capacity components that are closely linked to the investment trajectory. Furthermore, there has been mixed feelings regarding the CAMPFIRE programme at the local level, varied to mixed decision outcomes regarding stated preferences on whether to continue the programme or not. The study attempts to decipher this by investigating whether feelings are driven by past wild animal encounters and whether the stated programme preferences are in turn driven by the reported feelings or perceptions of benefit (utility). The study uses post…
abstract: The thesis investigates household economic and behavioural implications of public investments funded by communal based wildlife management programmes, such as Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe. The thesis focuses on household education and adaptive capacity production. It further investigates determinants of programme stated preferences and behaviour thereof in communal areas of Zimbabwe, using the case of Dande communal area in Mbire district. Since its inception in the late 1980s, there has been debate over the adequacy of the implementation of the CAMPFIRE programme in effecting economic and behavioural change in the respective communities. However, most of the assessments focused on household financial gains, poverty reduction and inequality. Results show that little financial gains accrue to the respective households, with poverty and inequality remaining high. This thesis argues that the main development trajectory in communities implementing communally based wildlife programmes such as CAMPFIRE is biased towards public capital investment; in the form of infrastructure development and respective support for the related services. By design therefore, the programme will have positive impact on access to publicly provided goods and services rather than private goods. By implication, the study further argues that the programme will therefore have varied implications on households' adaptive capacity components that are closely linked to the investment trajectory. Furthermore, there has been mixed feelings regarding the CAMPFIRE programme at the local level, varied to mixed decision outcomes regarding stated preferences on whether to continue the programme or not. The study attempts to decipher this by investigating whether feelings are driven by past wild animal encounters and whether the stated programme preferences are in turn driven by the reported feelings or perceptions of benefit (utility). The study uses post…
author: Matema, Collen
keywords: Economics
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:41Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: School of Economics

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32834