“Tame game, not wildest Africa”: small-scale game ranching in the context of land reform in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper will examine land use patterns in the Mashonaland districts in the postcolonial er focusing on the emergence of small game parks. It will look at the ways in which land in this region has been re-zoned since the attainment of Independence and assess the viability of su( land use policies. In this era a number of private land owners converted what had been arablt pastoral farms to private game parks, or combined with their neighbours to create small conservancies, modelled broadly on their larger lowveld counterparts. One legacy of the cok era was that the highveld area was best suited to intensive arable production, at times mixed intensive pastoralism. Partly, this was the logical conclusion given that this area was primari natural regions 2 and 3, which receive optimum rainfall per annum.2 Wolmer holds that regit and 2 were perceived as best for arable farming and 3 were best suited to mixed cattle and that Regions 4 and 5 were suited to extensive cattle or wildlife ranching.