Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
ZIMBABWE is making significant strides in combating deforestation as it boldly moves towards protecting the environment as part of the fight against effects of climate change.
Government last year pledged to reduce deforestation as a way of preserving the forest and avert climate change effects during the conference of parties on climate change COP-26 in Glasgow Scotland.
Other pledges made include accelerating the end of coal use through reducing the use of fossil fuels credited for the largest chunk of emissions globally.
Almost 46 countries have so far committed to ending their use of coal, under the “Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement”.
Developed powers have pledged to provide US$100 billion every year to developing countries for them to adapt and to mitigate climate change.
Twenty-three of the countries are newcomers to the commitment, while several major banks and financial institutions have indicated they will stop financing coal.
Already, the countries that have okayed the deforestation agreement contain 85 percent of the world’s forests. The deforestation agreement comes with US$19,2 billion of public and private funds for conservation efforts.
In an interview on the sidelines of an all-stakeholders climate change meeting in Harare recently, Forestry Commission Zimbabwe director general Mr Abednego Marufu said a raft of measures have seen a substantial reduction in terms of hectarage destroyed through the cutting down of trees from 300 000 hectares last year to 262 000 hectares this year.
“We have recorded significant success when it comes to protecting our forests as you can tell from the figures. We, however, cannot say we have won the war since we are targeting to further reduce the hectarage to about 100 000 hectares annually,” he said.
The commission last year suspended issuance of firewood permits and launched a blitz targeting firewood poachers to combat rampant cutting down of trees. They also embarked on various tree planting programmes, which saw between 15-20 million trees being planted each year.
“When planted, the trees have 60 percent chances of survival due to effects of climate change, but that is not to say we will stop planting trees. In fact, the more trees we plant, the more chances of getting more trees surviving,” he said.
Mr Marufu said there is a need to revise the country’s agriculture policies and programmes as they are the major cause of deforestation.
“The major causes of deforestation in Zimbabwe include clearing land for agriculture, especially tobacco farmers as they dry their product using fire. We also have power problems with communities resorting to cutting down trees for firewood,” he said.
“As a country we should be able to redesign the agriculture policies and programmes so that we reduce reasons for cutting down trees and providing alternative energy sources like use of tsotso stoves can also be a panacea.”
Mr Marufu said nomadic practices by some farmers should be discouraged as it promotes deforestation.
He said there is a need for value addition especially to non-timber trees.
“We are promoting value addition projects like bee keeping. We also call on farmers across the country to add value to trees at their disposal like amarula and amacimbi projects among others so that we utilise the trees instead of destroying them,” said Mr Marufu.
He said there is a need for the West to honour their US$100 billion per year pledge to finance some projects and help attain set goals.
“There is a need for the countries to honour their pledge so that we can access finance for some projects. For us to have robust policies, we need strong financial support. You will find that it takes between three to five years to get a project approved and funding released which is a major setback,” he said.
The commission will also continue carrying out conservation awareness as part of efforts to discourage communities from cutting down trees and preserve existing ones.
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