STATE LAND AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FOREST DEPARTMENT:
Land management and control i.e. state land is vested in the President of Zambia. The Commission of Lands has responsibility of controlling the land, which in Eastern Province comprises 280,000 hectares or 4%. The Forest Department as well as Education, Health, Agriculture, Water, the Judiciary, Community Development, and Wildlife Departments all fall under the District Administrator’s supervision. The first five entities mentioned are active in Chiulukire Local Forest.
It was pointed out repeatedly in the VRAs that the relationship between the Forest Department and the villages is bad. The wording goes so far as to say that the two are “enemies, that there has been “perpetual hatred” between the Forest Department and local community, and that the Forest Department officers are viewed as “hurdles” to their normal village life and traditional activities.
At least one village states that they are unaware of any written rights they have to products from the forest, but other villages say they know about a written list of products that are legal for them to collect from the forest for home use only. Apparently when the Chiulukire Hills in the south were designated as protected, no local labour was used nor local villages consulted on the location and clearing of the boundary lines. The actual boundary location is not clearly known in some places.
