Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

the communities in full and in time (IIED report, 1994). Also
political and administrative reasons have slowly moved
CAMPFIRE from its original objectives (Murphree, 1997). Another
reason for the failure of CAMPFIRE project is that it was highly
funded at inception to levels where donor money became the
oxygen for the project implementation; thus when the umbilical
cord was inevitably severed the life of the project took a huge
knock. Another major handicap of CAMPFIRE is that the law
places the appropriate authority for wildlife in the hands of the
Rural District Councils (RDCs), instead of host communities. This
has resulted in CAMPFIRE being driven by the RDCs rather than
host communities and thus most of the major decisions over
CAMPFIRE are made at the RDC level instead of community level.
Also the appropriate authority applies specifically to wildlife, but
not to land. This has made CAMPFIRE to be seen as applying
primarily to safari hunting and problem animal control (PAC).
Photographic and cultural tourism is not generally perceived as
belonging to CAMPFIRE. However in some communal lands, ecotourism
and cultural tourism have a greater economic potential
than safari hunting. Another major problem with CAMPFIRE in
most Districts is that problem animal control (PAC) is perceived as
a primary responsibility of the Safari operator contracted under
CAMPFIRE. However in most cases Safari hunters do not respond
swiftly when called for PAC resulting in extensive damages and
losses of livestock and crops by communities. The reluctance by
Safari hunters is mainly because PAC animals are usually not
trophy animals and hence have no significant value.
Benefits of natural resources management
While natural resources management as a practice is fraught with
a lot of challenges in terms of the appropriate and effective model
of implementation, it however has several benefits that can be
realised by government in general and host communities in
particular. These benefits include but are not limited to:
Financial or economic: Huge economic benefits can be
realized from both consumptive and non-consumptive use
of natural resources. Tourism industries which are largely
anchored on natural resources, contribute significant
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