Online Reporter
THE good and timely start to the rains this season makes it a lot easier for everyone to swing back into some serious tree planting, with National Tree Planting Day on Saturday coming at just the right time, although we can plant at any time at the moment and still expect our trees to be established by the time the rains peter out.
Independent Zimbabwe has recognised almost from the beginning that relying on natural woodland was not enough, and that for many reasons, practical and aesthetic, we needed to plant a lot more trees, hence the specific national day for the first Saturday in December when the ground should be wet enough to make the digging and preparation of a decent hole easy and having enough time to get a sapling surviving with just modest after-care.
Some people and families must have more trees. Most rural homesteads still rely on firewood for cooking, and even with the spread of electrification through solar panels on farmhouse roofs and mini-grids in service centres, alternative fuels will be needed for cooking and heating water.
So farm woodlots are important and while coppicing and other work does mean we can miss the odd drought year, it is still a good idea to extend them in good years.
There has been a major drive by the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board and the industry as a whole for farmers to use renewable wood supplies to cure their crop, rather than chopping down virgin forest.
This not only preserves the natural forest, but allows Zimbabwe to open markets in countries that worry about deforestation and want to see some serious progress in Zimbabwe to renewables so they can keep buying.
Besides these two groups that must establish woodlots, there are many others who can plant suitable trees to enhance their lives, diets and income.
In more recent years, schools, church groups and other communities have joined ordinary farm households to establish orchards and plant fruit trees. These have the dual advantages of producing fruit after a few years of growth to eat and sell as well as extending tree cover.
Even when land is tight, it has been suggested that planting along roads and boundaries can ensure good supplies of useful trees and fruit.
Urban people need not be left behind. Those with reasonably sized gardens have a lot of choice, but even the smallest high-density suburban plot, and these days the tiny gardens in cluster housing in even luxury suburbs, can host at least one, very carefully chosen, tree.
Again suitable fruits trees are popular, even if it just a lemon tree, but there are other choices that can provide shade without damaging foundations with roots.
The urban woodlands do make the rather utilitarian architecture we tend to use much better looking and provide a much better environment. Again it is possible for people, or even better a group of neighbours, to plant suitable trees on road verges to add to the aesthetics of their area. While councils are supposed to do some of the planting they cannot be everywhere although they can usually offer good advice to those wanting to plant verges.
The necessary woodlots and even a fair amount of other planting tend to be dominated by exotic trees, species not indigenous to Zimbabwe. Eucalyptus being fast growing and providing straight poles for fencing and other uses are deservedly popular for woodlots and fruit trees often have to be global varieties.
But for many purposes there is an indigenous tree that works, sometimes even better. It is false to assume that all indigenous trees are slow growing, although the brachystagia species that dominate the Miombo woodlands that stretch across Southern Africa south of the Congo rainforest are not the fastest growers.
But there are many other species that produce a decent-sized tree in very few years, and the Forestry Commission is always delighted to give advice and sell, at remarkably low prices, suitable seedlings.
Indigenous trees are normally more disease resistant, obviously well adapted to the climate they evolved in, and in any case need to be encouraged. Often it is just choosing the right species and variety for our needs and which will grow well where we live.
A tree will be growing for many decades so we do need to choose the best type for our needs, our location and our soils, but the enthusiasts are always willing to help and make suggestions. Besides the Forestry Commission several councils run nurseries, again often staffed by very knowledgeable and enthusiastic experts.
Recent research suggests that the Miombo natural forests in Zimbabwe and its tropical neighbours are a much more efficient carbon sink than previously thought, and far closer to rainforest than expected.
This opens up new possibilities of extending our natural forest and woodland cover through intelligent planting to earn the carbon credits that can provide extra streams of income, as well as brightening up our countryside and providing all sorts of by-products from mulches onward.
Preserving and extending woodland is not a drain on resources, but can be productive.
However we work it, planting a tree, or even a few trees, from this weekend adds value to property, helps beat climate change, looks good and makes life easier.
So those willing to work on national tree day should this week be preparing the holes, and carefully selecting the type and species of tree they will be planting.
