Dimensions and corollaries of violence in Zimbabwe’s protected forests

Abstract

The militarisation of conservation is intensifying with increasing need to protect wildlife from poaching. Conservation violence is concomitantly escalating, so is the impetus to understand it. This article engages with the militarisation of conservation outside the response of rhino and elephant poaching. It uses experiences of people with militarised conservation in Sikumi Forest Reserve, Zimbabwe, to examine conservation violence in terms of its dimensions and corollaries. In doing so, the article places physical violence at the centre of its causes and consequences to emerge with an analytical framework that simultaneously examines the geographies of direct and indirect conservation violence. Ultimately, we suggest that a ‘dimensions and corollaries’ approach manages the methodological conundrum around examining conservation violence in, and around protected areas. Within the same approach, we demonstrate how different dimensions of conservation violence infiltrate and encompass the control of everyday livelihood activities of local people. In this regard, we suggest that any aspect or dimension of militarised conservation has far-reaching corollary effects.