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implementation of the land reform programme, President Mugabe has said.
Addressing delegates to the High-Level Meeting on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought in the Context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication at the United Nations headquarters here on Tuesday, President Mugabe said more than 213 000 households were resettled under the historic programme.
He said the land reform programme resolved “excessive land use pressures” that resulted in land degradation and desertification.
“I am happy my Government has managed to fully implement one of the prioritised areas on poverty alleviation through the historic land reform programme, which has decongested the rural areas which were characterised by excessive land use pressures that caused land degradation and desertification,” he said.
“The historic programme was aimed at, among its goals, poverty alleviation, equitable distribution of land, income generation and environmental restoration of the decongested land. A total of 213 656 households were resettled on 14, 9 million hectares of land.”
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, said Government was concerned by the impact of desertification, land degradation and droughts on socio-economic development.
He said although authorities have not invested in mitigation strategies owing to several reasons, focus remained on combating these problems in order to eradicate poverty.
“. . . Drought, land degradation and desertification compromise the social, economic and environmental pillars of sustainable development. It is, therefore, important that we proclaim zero net land degradation and adopt effective land reclamation programmes. Let’s green our land for food production and adaptation to climate change.
“My Government has since put in place a National Action Plan for desertification control, land degradation, mitigation and adaptation. When formulating the National Action Plan, Zimbabwe prioritised areas of intervention including traditional energy sources, water resources management, public awareness and capacity-building, soil conservation and land tenure systems.
“. . . My Government is also implementing initiatives in the driest regions of the country through national programmes such as the ‘Million Tree’ campaign, in which five million trees were planted last year alone around the country in order to reduce erosion rates, to rehabilitate, reclaim and restore degraded land.”
The President added that Zimbabwe signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to monitor land degradation and was working with various stakeholders to combat desertification through different interventions such as aforestation and reforestation.
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He said the country also participates in regional wildlife and natural resources conservation programmes. Among such initiatives are Transfrontier conservation with Mozambique and South Africa; Zambia andMozambique as well as Botswana and Namibia.
“Under the auspices of the African Union, environmental monitoring systems in individual countries, including Zimbabwe, are tracking changes in biodiversity due to uncontrolled fires and droughts.
“In the 1980s, my Government embarked on community based natural resources management programmes through a home-grown initiative called Community Area Management for Indigenous Resources, which has spread throughout the country and also copied in the Sadc region.
“The CAMPFIRE programme champions the sustainable utilisation of forest resources and wildlife instead of excessively relying on agriculture, particularly in marginal areas that are not viable for cultivation. Through hunting trophies, eco-tourism and sale of wildlife products in these areas, communities lead sustainable livelihoods in the face of desertification and high incidents of drought.”
Tuesday’s gathering, which drew heads of state and other key stakeholders, was among the high-level meetings that preceded today’s official opening of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly.
The meetings sought to discuss critical issues affecting the world, among them food and nutrition as well as poverty alleviation. The interface on desertification, land degradation and drought ran concurrently with the High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases, which was yesterday expected to formulate a global strategy on dealing with the diseases.
Zimbabwe is located in Sub-Saharan Africa where between 60 and 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas and primarily depends on agriculture. Seventy-eight percent of land degradation occurs in the region.
Online Reporter