APPROACH: THE CASE OF TOTEMS, SPIROSTACHYS AFRICANA AND ACACIA NIGRESCENS IN CONSERVING ZIMBABWEAN FAUNA AND FLORA.

The fight against unsustainable use of the environment calls for a multisectoral approach, ethno-based methods included. Thus ethno-based methods (traditional knowledge systems) of conserving the flora and fauna and the use of traditional herbs to fight various ailments have slowly resurfaced from the ‘caves ’ to save those of us living in the computer world of today. Indigenous groups all over the world have developed cultural belief systems that demonstrate knowledge of and appreciation of the Earth. They embody cultural rules about how the various components of the environment should be treated for the good of current and future generations. This paper thus explored the use of Ethno-based Knowledge (Traditional Knowledge Systems) to protect the environment from degradation as expressed through totems, rituals and prohibitions regulating the use of natural resources, hence, contributed to the conservation of flora and fauna among indigenous Zimbabweans. Two similar ‘technologies ’ were identified from two different cultures in Zimbabwe and both had some aquatic conservation systems in them. The two ethno-based technologies compared fairly well to modern technology used in the catching of Kapenta fish in Lake Kariba Zimbabwe. In a multi-dimensional qualitative approach, ethno based knowledge systems were extracted from some Shona and Ndebele communities through interviews with key stakeholders such as community elders, teachers and students from the two cultures. A case on sustainable development is then made for the need to document, publicize, teach and assess school children on issues of ethno-based wisdom for sustainable environmental management in the current and future generations the world over