**2. Methods**

#### **2.1 Study area**

The Mahenye community ecotourism project is situated in Chipinge District (**Figure 1**), in the remote but biologically and culturally diverse southeast boundary area of Zimbabwe with Mozambique. Mahenye Ward had a total population of 3671 and the number of households was 707 in 2012 [14]. Mahenye is the land of the Shangaan people, also known as the Tsonga or Hlengwe [15]. The tradition and culture of the Mahenye community have remained strong as the Shangaan are ethnically discrete within the Chipinge District. All the other wards of Chipinge District comprise primarily Shona-speaking Ndau peoples [2]. Thus, Mahenye is characterized by discreteness and isolation.

*Towards Sustainable Community Conservation in Tropical Savanna Landscapes… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101589*

**Figure 1.** *Location of Mahenye in Southeast Zimbabwe (Source: Authors).*

The Mahenye ecotourism is a community-based project initiated in 1982 to promote both biophysical conservation and socio-economic development in the Ward. The ecotourism project is owned by the whole Mahenye community and its secretariat is under the Jamanda Community Conservancy and Trust, whose office bearers are elected by the community. The Mahenye ecotourism project started as a community-driven initiative in partnership with the then Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management, now Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority in 1982 thereby making it the birthplace of CBNRM programmes in Sub-Sahara Africa. This arrangement was officially endorsed when the central government granted appropriate authority over wildlife to Chipinge Rural District Council in 1991 [2]. The Mahenye ecotourism project receives substantial donor funding, however from the year 2003 to 2015 some donor fatigue was experienced. Currently, the Mahenye ecotourism is a community private partnership between the community and a business corporate, River Lodges of Africa which runs Chilo Lodge for the purpose of accommodating visitors to the Ward [16]. River Lodges of Africa has a lease agreement with the Mahenye community and it makes direct financial payments to the Jamanda Community Conservancy and Trust.

The Mahenye community ecotourism project was chosen as it served as one of the early models for the development of the CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe and the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approach in Sub-Saharan Africa [2, 17], and has been able to remain resilient in the face of significant challenges throughout its operational phase [1]. Mahenye is also within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). The Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) initiatives seek to promote and facilitate regional peace, tourism, biophysical conservation, cooperation, and socio-economic development in Southern Africa [18, 19].

Mahenye is characterized by teeming tropical savanna biogeography. The average monthly maximum temperatures are 25.9°C in July and 36°C in January. The average monthly minimum temperatures range between 9°C in June and 24°C in January [20]. The annual average rainfall is low ranging between 400

and 600 mm and supports little rain-fed crop farming, thus making ecotourism an important non-agricultural source of livelihood [2]. A wide variety of animal species are also found at Mahenye including the African elephant (*Loxodonta africana*), leopard (*Panthera pardus*), buffalo (*Syncerus caffer*), giraffe (*Giraffa camelopardalis*), zebra (*Equus quagga*), hippopotamus (*Hippopotamus amphibius*), wildebeest (*Connochaetes taurinus*) and kudu (*Tragelaphus strepsiceros*). Mahenye is also mainly covered by mixed mopane (*Colophospermum mopane*) and combretum (*Combrertum*) woodland but a dense riverine forest is found along the Save River supporting a broad range of floral, fish, and avian species [2].

The main ecotourism activities or products at Mahenye are both consumptive such as trophy hunting and fishing and non-consumptive comprising game drives, a photographic safari, birdwatching and identification, canoeing, village tours, scenic views for example, at Chivilila Falls along the Save River and lodges [21]. The other main economic activities in the study area are crop farming and livestock husbandry. There is also community gardening, marketing crafts to ecotourists, and selling traditional beer brewed from Ilala palms (*Hyphenea petersiana*). Other local residents are also involved in low-paying jobs at the Chilo Lodge which houses ecotourists. Some local residents have also been trained as natural resource monitors and game scouts. Further, some local residents also perform traditional dances to ecotourists at cultural festivals [21].

#### **2.2 Data collection and analysis**

The research was approached from a qualitative perspective basing the study on data mining and key informant interviews using cellphone calls, e-mailing, and social media platforms. The study was also based on field observations undertaken in May 2019 and the researcher's prior knowledge about Mahenye having carried out research in the area from 2008 to the present. The study also used the case-study approach.

Key information was sought from an environmental management professional at the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) headquarters in Harare, hereafter referred to as Expert 1. A key informant interview was carried out with a senior official at the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA), hereafter referred to as Key Informant 1. Other key informant interviews were carried with officials at the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) in Harare and Chipinge Rural District Council (RDC), hereafter referred to as Key Informant 2 and Key Informant 3. Further, key informant interviews were carried with 3 key informants with experience in the Mahenye community ecotourism project, hereafter referred to as Key Informant 4, Key Informant 5, and Key Informant 6. These 3 key informants are residents of Mahenye Ward and have experience in working for the community-based ecotourism project as CAMPFIRE committee members and employees of the Jamanda Community Conservancy. The research engaged 7 key informants as qualitative aspects work with saturation. Engaging more research participants from Mahenye was also problematic given poor access to virtual technologies in the remote community. The key informant interviews were conducted virtually between June and December 2020. The interviews were carried out virtually due to human movement restrictions and social distancing requirements being used as COVID-19 health containment measures. The respondents were informed of the academic purposes of the study and gave their informed consent to participate.

A combination of content and thematic analysis was used to sort the large volumes of collected data into focused and meaningful information for the purpose of addressing the research objectives [22–24]. Data analysis also included identifying

*Towards Sustainable Community Conservation in Tropical Savanna Landscapes… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101589*

and documenting the shocks emanating from climate change at the Mahenye community ecotourism project. The adaptations that can make the ecotourism model at Mahenye more resilient in the face of climate change were determined from the author's field experiences, strategies mentioned in the academic documents, and from key informants. The information obtained from data analysis and authors' field experiences was then used to develop the management intervention framework for community-based ecotourism ventures in a changing global climate. The management intervention framework was adapted from the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) [25, 26]. The SLA has been successfully used to understand and promote sustainable rural development [27]. The SLA is a diagnostic tool that provides a framework for understanding and improving the sustainability of livelihood in the face of biophysical, socio-economic, and health shocks.
