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The Contested Floodplain
Institutional Change of the Commons in the Kafue Flats, Zambia
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Publisher:
2012
Summary
The Contested Floodplain tells the story of institutional changes in the management of common pool resources (pasture, wildlife, and fisheries) among Ila and Balundwe agro-pastoralists and Batwa fishermen in the Kafue Flats, in southern Zambia. It explains how and why a once rich floodplain area, managed under local common property regimes, becomes a poor man’s place and a degraded resource area. Based on social anthropological field research, the book explains how well working institutions in the past, regulating communal access to resources, have turned into state property and open access or privatization. As a basis for analysis, the author uses Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for well working institutions and the approach of the New Institutionalism by Jean Ensminger. The latter approach focuses on external factors and change in relative prices. It explains how local actors face changing bargaining power and use different ideologies to legitimize and shape resource use regulations. The study focuses on the historic developments taking place since pre-colonial and colonial times up to today. Haller shows how the commons had been well regulated by local institutions in the past, often embedded in religious belief systems. He then explains the transformation from common property to state property since colonial times. When the state is unable to provide well functioning institutions due to a lack in financial income, it contributes to de facto open access and degradation of the commons. The Zambian copper-based economy has faced crisis since 1975, and many Zambians have to look for economic alternatives and find ways to profit from the lack of state control (a paradox of the present-absent state). And while the state is absent, external actors use the ideology of citizenship to justify free use of resources during conflicts with local people. Also within Zambian communities, floodplain resources are highly contested, which is illustrated through conflicts over a proposed irrigation scheme in the area. The different actors and interest groups use ideologies such as citizenship vs. being indigenous, ethnic identity vs. class conflict, and modernity vs traditional way of life to legitimize land claims.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2012
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-6956-8
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-6957-5
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
556
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
List of Pictures No access
List of Maps No access
List of Figures No access
List of Tables No access
Foreword No access
Ch01. Introduction No access Pages 1 - 38
Ch02. The Kafue Flats Ecosystem No access Pages 39 - 54
Ch03. A “Fierce” People No access Pages 55 - 108
Ch04. From Lozi Raids to Ineffective State Control No access Pages 109 - 162
Ch05. Transformations in Pastoral Commons No access Pages 163 - 240
Ch06. “We Will Throw the Lozi into the River” No access Pages 241 - 336
Ch07. From Hunting to Poaching No access Pages 337 - 418
Ch08. Irrigation for the Poor—Cattle for the Rich? No access Pages 419 - 456
Ch09. Conclusions No access Pages 457 - 496
Appendix 1 No access Pages 497 - 500
Appendix 2 No access Pages 501 - 506
Appendix 3 No access Pages 507 - 508
Appendix 4 No access Pages 509 - 512
Appendix 5 No access Pages 513 - 516
Appendix 6 No access Pages 517 - 520
Appendix 7 No access Pages 521 - 522
Appendix 8 No access Pages 523 - 524
Appendix 9 No access Pages 525 - 526
Appendix 10 No access Pages 527 - 534
Glossary No access Pages 535 - 536
Bibliography No access Pages 537 - 550
Index No access Pages 551 - 554
About the Author No access Pages 555 - 556
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