“The paper begins with a discussion of environmental degradation discourses in southern Africa and how they influence policy processes. The first section highlights the link between environmental degradation and poverty. This is followed by an overview of land reform processes in southern Africa, consisting of case studies on Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, which provide a variety of perspectives, ranging from radical land redistribution and resettlement in Zimbabwe to land tenure reform in Mozambique. These overviews contain a review of land reform that has taken place, and look at how environmental considerations have (or have not) informed land reform processes. The case studies examine the impact of land reform processes on environmental sustainability of land uses. They look at how communities are managing their natural resources in these new circumstances; and identify land reform policy processes that have generated opportunities for facilitating community-based natural resource management (CBNRM).”
