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Tafadzwa Ndlovu Herald Reporter
Mashonaland West Province is set to benefit from a three-year US$600 000 World Wide Fund for Nature forest and climate change programme which aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and environmental degradation. WWF country director Dr Enos Shumba told The Herald in Karoi recently during a sustainable forest management workshop that his organisation had targeted the province since it was losing large tracts of forests as tobacco farmers use wood to cure their tobacco crop.
“Mashonaland West province is the country’s largest supplier of tobacco and it is losing huge swathes of forest due to agricultural practices especially the tobacco curing process,” he said.
“Under this project, for the next three years we will be supporting Government’s reafforestation efforts through the provision of seedlings.
“We want to improve the tobacco curing process by encouraging the use of rocket barns which use less firewood for the process.”
Through the use of rocket barns, energy experts say farmers may use half the amount of firewood they consume than they would do when using conventional methods of tobacco curing.
Under the forest and climate change programme, WWF will support farmers in field-based conservation efforts and provide strategic direction, oversight and technical support for the field based programs.
Dr Shumba said the programme sought to support Government forestry and climate change programmes given the budgetary constraints it was facing.
Forestry Commission deputy managing director Mr Abednigo Marufu said his organisation was conducting research in support of programmes to do with the forestry industry.
“Forestry Commission is conducting a number of research programmes in support of the forest industry such as the tree improvement programme,” he said.
“Significant gains have been achieved in the development of trees with desirable characteristics such as stem form, wood density and adaptability.”
Mr Marufu said the eucalyptus hybrid programme had registered some success and set to benefit farmers under the Tobacco Wood Energy Programme ( TWEP) project.
Hurungwe Rural District Council chairman Mr Tichaona Mathew said there was need to continuously raise awareness on the importance of trees.
“We need to conscientise our people on the importance of trees and have them practise projects such as bee-keeping where they can benefit. We cannot stop people from cutting trees but it is critical to encourage sustainable forestry,” he said.
According to the Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe is losing an average of 330 000 hectares of forest cover each year with 15 percent of that blamed on tobacco farmers.
Online Reporter