Zimbabwe parks authority in conflict with community over land in Nyanga highlands
As first appeared in Zim Morning Post, here. Written by Farayi Machamire.
March 25 2023
Rising number of housing developments around the park are changing wildlife migratory patterns
The Blue Swallow, an intra-African migrant bird that breeds in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, is one of many endangered species feared to be wiped out by increasing encroachments.
Image by Jongsun Lee.
A plot of land at the northwestern border of Nyanga National Park has been at the centre of a 30-year dispute between Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) and Nyanga Rural District Council, and has seen wildlife shift their migratory patterns in response to the construction of homes by a growing human population.
Correspondences obtained by this publication show that ZimParks has been at odds with Nyanga Rural District Council over the piece of land since the 1990s. Both sides continue to adamantly assert their status as the rightful custodians.
Subsequently, Nyanga Rural District Council in 2011 began developing the land for residential purposes with a number of families settled in the area now known as Nyanga Extension.
Lovemore Mandipaza, who grew up in Nyamaropa and frequently travelled through Nyanga National Park, claims that the region where Nyangani Extension now stands was once home to wildebeest and zebras.
“Many zebras and wildebeest fled into the thicket when these residential stands were being constructed, leaving them susceptible to poachers,” he says.
“In reality, there was a variety of wildlife to be seen about ten years ago. But right now, due to population growth and administrative failings at Nyanga Park, it’s possible to travel through the park and reach Nyanga Town without seeing a single zebra or wildebeest.”
Nyanga Rural District Council CEO Zefania Jaravaza, acknowledged that wildebeest and zebras were once familiar sights in the open grasslands that border the park and Nyanga Town, but insists that the council had not invaded the national park.
He insisted, however, that despite the council’s desperate need for land, it is not guilty of invading the national park and has only developed areas that have received approval from town planning officials.
“There is a widespread idea that local government employees are reckless, dishonest, corrupt and incapable of understanding legal requirements. It is utterly untrue,” Jaravaza told the Zim Morning Post.
“We understand the Parks Act and laws governing national parks and wouldn’t be so ignorant as to violate them. We are only managers of state land but we can’t make any land moves without permission. It’s criminal.”
Currently, more than 5,000 people in Nyanga Town have been stuck on the medium- and high-density housing waiting lists where they are battling to access land for residential use, council says.
The Town is encircled by Nyanga National Park, and a portion of it is adjacent to a mountain, which makes it challenging for town planners to meet the demand for housing.
Jaravaza claims there is no malice on the part of council regarding the current disputed land, despite the fact that cornered councillors are considering writing to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to request for land within Nyanga National Park to alleviate their residential issues.
Housing and Planning Officer Shingi Muchabveyo also showed the press council architectural drawings of Nyanga Extension which supposedly demonstrate that the land in question is on the borderline, outside the National Park.
“Various ZimParks teams have come to confront us, alleging that we are selling land within the Park, but we have demonstrated that we are seated within the Nyanga Development Plan. They then expressed concern that we failed to leave a buffer zone. We agree with that, but we never entered the Park by even a millimetre,” he responded.
The destruction of buffer zones that allow wildlife to migrate from one habitat to another is a concerning consequence.
Be that as it may, a map from the Surveyor General’s Office, However, a map of the 470 square kilometres of Nyanga National Park from the Surveyor General’s Office shows that the disputed land in issue is located within the borders of the national park.
After being shown the map by this newspaper, Muchabveiyo questioned it before suggesting that “there might be a mistake with that map.”
ZimParks officials say the map from the Surveyor General Office which is Zimbabwe’s custodian of boundary records is accurate.
They insist that the map coupled with correspondence between ZimParks and Nyanga Rural District Council, which stretch back over two decades, shows there is no doubt that the land in question belongs to the national park.
According to a 1996 exchange of letters between ZimParks and the Manicaland Provincial Town Planning Office, there was a mistake in the geographical data generation for the Nyanga Town Development Plan.
The Provincial Town Planning Office wrote to the department, “This office would like to advise you that it has been brought to our attention by eastern land surveyors who completed the survey of the above layout plan in 1976 that a portion of the plan encroaches on the remainder of Nyanga Valley which belongs to your department (ZimParks).”
“The planning error was caused by our misinterpretation on the ground of the western boundaries of lot 4 of Nyanga valley on which the first phase of Nyanga 2 development sits.”
The town planners were notified to return the disputed land to its natural condition by ZimParks in response to the message.
They also rejected a land-exchange plan from the Nyanga Rural District Council. Authorities in Park at the time said that action would “set a dangerous precedent.”
Years later, ZimParks remains adamant the land where some 800 families are building their homes belongs to the national park and is an affront to wildlife migratory patterns.
“There is a problem with Nyanga Council which is involved in encroaching into Nyanga National Park. The area affected is Nyangani Extension and ZimParks has been engaging with the council to put a stop to the encroachment,” said ZimParks Director Scientific Services Professor Edson Gandiwa.
The Nyanga Rural District Council has also been attempting to acquire control of the 1,200 hectare Nyazengu Farm, a private property that is situated in the middle of Nyanga National Park.
“If given the land, we would negotiate a land exchange with the national park so that they take that Farm and give us land that is on its borders so that the town can expand and meet housing demand,” said Nyanga Rural District Council CEO Jaravaza.
Those ambitions, according to park managers, are unrealistic and if entertained would undermine conservation efforts while creating a risky precedent, as determined by their predecessors in 1996.
The Blue Swallow, an intra-African migrant that breeds in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, is one of many endangered species that rangers fear will be wiped out by increasing encroachments.
The current number of Blue Swallow pairs worldwide is believed to be 4000. It is estimated that the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe sustain a quarter of the breeding population, making it one of the most crucial habitats for Blue Swallow survival.
A resident of Nyamhuka Extension who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for retaliation stated, “I have official paperwork permitting me to have constructed my home here and I can’t be moved because ZimParks says so.”
Deputy minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister Barbra Rwodzi and the ministry’s chief director environment both saw media inquiries, but neither one responded.
Observers claim that because the Nyanga extension disagreement has persisted for so long, there is no other viable option than to accept the harm that has been done and work on strategies to conserve wildlife and habitats under the current circumstances, without any further encroachment.
However, councillors are likely to fight on for more, under pressure to deliver housing needs to a growing population, whose vote determines whether they stay in office.
This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organisation Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Written articles from the Mozambican and Angolan cohorts are translated from Portuguese. Broadcast stories remain in the original language.
