Understanding the Impact of Human Wildlife Conflicts in Conservation Management:The Case of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

This research derives from literature and empirical field based data from doctoral thesis in the aftermath of a study undertaken by Mzembi (2015) entitled “An Exploratory Study of Conservation Management in Zimbabwe: A Governance Perspective”. One of the key issues to emerge was that the cooperation of the local community was an important factor in the success of conservation efforts. This implies close partnership and cooperation between the conservation management staff and the members of the immediate community. As the findings can reveal, the power dynamic imbalances forestall possible cooperation between the local people and conservation management processes in Victoria Falls, which is largely the mirror of what is happening elsewhere in Zimbabwe’s conservation of wildlife. Indeed, as will be shown by results bellow, the communities whose rights seem not being realised in terms of deriving benefits, have made them become accessories to exacerbating human-wildlife conflicts where poaching has increased alarmingly, and this ideally, leads to an unsustainable way as far as sustainable management of wildlife is concerned. The relationship between the local people and wildlife is thus conflict ridden and indeed, if no practical steps are taken to integrate the local people and wildlife in a participatory beneficiary way, leads to wildlife degradation and even extinction of resources.