The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Farawo
Zimbabwe’s majestic flora and fauna is renowned the world over. Each year, thousands of tourists flock into the country to have a feel of the country’s God-given endowments. But the threat of a growing population and increased agriculture activity, among other things, has seen the country’s natural gifts coming under increasing pressure.
In areas where tobacco farming is the main agriculture activity, trees have suffered the bane of unconstrained felling.
Thousands of tobacco farmers, unable to afford alternative resources to cure their tobacco, have each year turned to trees as their main source of energy for curing the golden leaf.
Every year, Zimbabwe loses at least 7,5 million trees from its national forests. This has in turn led to unmitigated deforestation, leaving swathes of land open to the ravages of desertification.
Surprisingly, debate over conservation of forests has generally been muted. Conservationists describe the continued cutting down of tress as a monumental environmental catastrophe which could cost the country dearly if it is not quelled.
As a result, large swathes of land in the country have been lost to land degradation, making the land unsuitable for human or animal habitation and also unfit for agriculture activities. Land degradation is any change in the condition of the land, reducing its productive potential. It is a result of the deterioration of the quality of land, its top soil and vegetation.
Conservationists estimate that at least 10 percent of Zimbabwe’s soils are under huge risk of erosion as a result of deforestation.
They say the costs of replacing the 7,5 million trees destroyed by tobacco each year tops $22,5 million, if those trees are indigenous, barring other overhead costs such as transport and labour.
While Government, quasi-government agencies and law enforcement authorities have sort to quell the menace using standing statutes and regulations, the problem has continued. To its credit, Zimbabwe dedicates the first Saturday of December each year to tree planting countrywide.
Under the auspices of the Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe plants 2,5 million trees each year.
President Mugabe has led this noble initiative to help replenish the country’s vastly ravaged countryside by leading the ceremony known as the National Tree Planting Day.
Apart from this national initiative, other communities and conservation organisation are leading crusades in their areas to replenish and conserve the country’s flora.
In Kariba, such an initiative is paying huge dividends for residents in four districts. From general forest conservation, the communities are also racking in a lot of money through the initiative.
The initiatives, known as carbon neutral empowerment fuel empowerment programme, is being undertaken through NIEEB and a private investor and has witnessed massive conservation of forests in the region and a trickle down of benefits to the surrounding communities.
Four Community Share Ownership Trusts — Binga, Nyaminyami, Hurungwe and Mbire CSOTs — founded under the terms of the country’s Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment law, are also making massive headway in conserving the Kariba’s natural landscape.
The Kariba Redd+ project is a forest conservation project being implemented by Carbon Green Africa which guarantees conservation projects managed according to internationally certified rules. It seeks to promote forest conservation of forests through usage of alternative fuels by communities in the area.
Forest conservation is a vastly important task in tourism-based communities such as Kariba. As a result of their conservation efforts, the communities are rewarded through monetary injections into their respective CSOT.
In 2013 alone, the four communities received $100 000, a figure which almost tripled to $275 716 the following year.
Last week, Carbon Neutral Empowerment Fuel managing director, Mr Rangu Nyamurundira said that the initiative amounts to a convergence of conservation, empowerment and development.
“It resonates with President Mugabe’s call in ZimAsset for the judicious exploitation of our natural and human resources.
“This time it is trees that are a natural resource, and whose conservation will make them infinite, generating wealth to our communities and transforming them into the “Empowered Society” that will sustainably grow our economy, starting from the grassroots up.
“Ultimately Kariba Redd+ project is a ‘quick win’ for Government’s development and empowerment agenda.
‘‘Therefore, there is need for more Government support and indeed, the participation and support of the private sector, including indigenising companies that have real measurable opportunity to contribute directly to economic empowerment as defined by the Indigenisation Act and its regulations. The project seeks to empower communities and conserve the country’s forests,” he said.
Forestry Commission spokesperson, Ms Violet Makoto, said the initiative was good for the conservation of the country’s forests which are under threat.
“We are supporting this project technically and we are working hard to conserve our trees, we are also working together in planting more trees,” she said.
