Online Reporter
Arron Nyamayaro
Herald Reporter
THE Forestry Commission has been readmitted into the Central America and Mexico Coniferous Resources Cooperative (CAMCORE), a global tree-breeding and gene-conservation programme hosted at North Carolina State University in the United States.
The development restores a scientific collaboration that began in 1993, but was later interrupted in the early 2000s following economic challenges that affected Zimbabwe’s forestry sector due to economic sanctions.
A CAMCORE delegation comprising director Mr Juan Jose Acosta from North Carolina State University and Brazilian research specialist Mr Ricondo Goncilheino, is in Zimbabwe to formalise the renewed partnership.
The team is expected to visit Forestry Commission research stations in Mutare during their stay.
Forestry Commission director-general Mr George Manyumwa said the reinstatement marked a significant milestone in the organisation’s research journey.
“The significance of this membership is, therefore, not merely institutional; it is historical,” said Mr Manyumwa.
“The Forestry Commission’s original CAMCORE membership, which ran from 1993 to 1997, was a period of considerable scientific productivity.”
He said the initial period of cooperation enabled Zimbabwe to access improved genetic materials, including previously untested provenances of Pinus patula, which remains the country’s most commercially important softwood plantation species, accounting for about 75 percent of pine plantation areas.
