From Institutional Recognition to Eco-Social Transformation: Indigenous Environment-Driven Rural Community Development, Human Rights, and Social Work in Zimbabwe

Abstract Colonial legacies continue to shape environmental governance in Zimbabwe through fragmented institutional mandates, command-and-control approaches, and limited incorporation of Indigenous environmental knowledge. This paper examines how environmental governance, National Association of Social Workers-Zimbabwe, and two social work education institutions understand Indigenous environment-driven rural community development, how their perspectives compare with community practices observed in Birchenough Bridge and Honde Valley, and what these findings imply for human rights, environmental social work, and institutional transformation. The study employed a two-stage Indigenous environment-engaged qualitative design. Community-generated photographs, videos, and environmental accounts informed photo- and video-inspired interviews with 23 participants from the Environmental Management Agency, Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, National Association of Social Workers-Zimbabwe, University of Zimbabwe, and Midlands State University. Reflexive thematic analysis, informed by decolonial, ecological, and human rights perspectives, revealed broad institutional recognition of Indigenous environmental knowledge alongside persistent structural contradictions. Participants valued community practices grounded in ecological reciprocity, yet institutional responses remained constrained by siloed mandates, regulatory hierarchies, limited collaboration, and unequal epistemic authority. Social work academics also identified Western-oriented, urban-centred, and classroom-based curricula as barriers to environmentally responsive education. The article argues that recognition does not itself constitute transformation. Advancing Indigenous environment-driven rural community development requires redistribution of epistemic authority, reciprocal community-institutional collaboration, and integration of Indigenous knowledge, ecological integrity, and human rights into environmental governance, social work education, and practice.