Incentivising Effective Indigenous Ecosystem Restoration Practices: A Synopsis of Perceptual Approaches to Local Climate Action in the Barotse Cultural Landscape

Abstract

The study was premised on a generic hypothesis that attributes the status quo vis-à-vis increasing ecosystem degradation to communities’ stage-managed negligence fueled by the state’s decision about sixty years ago to start incentivising, unsustainably though, previously voluntary environmental consciousness and associated actions by the communities. Rural livelihoods are generally threatened by climate impacts, particularly for agrarian and pastoralist communities, like the study area. Although extreme weather events have always been there, the frequency of their occurrence has risen and the exposed populations have been growing. A concise illustration of the conjectures of the study is reflected in the findings which have established the contributions of indigenous ecosystem restoration efforts and general prudent environmental management under the decentralized indigenous governance system. It has further been established that the indigenous systems that flourished in the pre-independence era were curtailed by governance system shifts from the decentralized indigenous governance system to the state controlled centralized governance system effectively alienating the people from their sacred duty of directly managing their ecosystems. Further, a general neglect by the local people in ecosystem restoration has been attributed to three main factors bordering on the state’s earlier pledges, alleged corruption in contract management processes, as well as the urgency of addressing household food needs which is usually subordinated to public works like ecosystem remediation. Arising from the observed impediments to locally-led ecosystem restoration efforts, the study has recommended to intentionally incentivize indigenous ecosystem restoration efforts using the proposed modalities as outlined herein.