adminrecord six days.
Twalumba is a “can rhino”, a symbol of environmental hope and resistance.
After touring the country in the past fortnight, Twalumba arrived to promote her environmental, conservation and artwork at the Harare International Festival of the Arts last week.
“This (Hifa) is a perfect platform from where Twalumba could tell her story to an appreciative audience, one that understands art, but perhaps not necessarily the environment,” said Mr Edward Chipashu, spokesperson of Environment Africa, creators of the can rhino concept. And her story is to promote and encourage “animal conservation (particularly the rhino) and waste management through art”.
Four more life-size animal figures built from recycled waste are coming within the next few months.
The lion, cheetah, buffalo and elephant will be constructed to complete the Big Five, as part of Environment Africa’s contribution to the forthcoming UNWTO.
“Twalumba will be an ambassador to raise awareness around recycling, conservation and our environment,” Environment Africa said. Construction of Twalumba was done by local artists at Elephant’s Walk in partnership with Victoria Falls Green Fund and artists at Ruoko Project.
Making up her horn is wire recovered from snares by the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit and the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority.
The body is covered in recycled beverage cans. Lead sculptor Gift Sithole said as artists they were concerned about the rising level of environmental damage and pollution defacing local communities.
“We built Twalumba for free as our contribution to the environmental work being done by the other partners to recycling and conservation,” he said.
“This is our gift to the community. Currently, a lot of art work is under construction using recycled materials such as plastic.”
Endangered species
There is a special reason Environment Africa elected to go with the rhino first. The rhino appears high on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of critically endangered species.
Moreover, Environment Africa is led by a passionate conservationist, the “rhino girl” Charlene Hewat, famed for her whirlwind 22 000km worldwide bicycle ride for the rhino 25 years ago.
But, more importantly, the rhino population is fast dwindling due to rampant illegal poaching.
Figures released at the IUCN World Congress in Korea last September put the remaining populations at 4 880 black rhino, listed as critically endangered.
There are less than 50 Javan rhino and below 200 Sumatran rhino, both critically endangered, left in the world.
At least 2 920 greater one-horned rhino still exist with the greatest population recorded among the white rhino at 20 165.
But of these, average 427 animals have disappeared from the wild each year over the past four years due to illegal killings. Most of the killings occur in South Africa. There are over 700 black and white rhino in Zimbabwe.
By June last year, 32 rhino had been born and 17 killed. About 95 percent of deaths were a result of poaching. The rhino is killed for its horn, a prized asset in Asia, particularly China and Vietnam.
The horn is wrongly believed to contain medicinal properties. In Yemen, it is used for ornate dagger handles.
However, the loss of species results in biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, diminishing the quality of human lives and basic economic security.
By saving species people save biodiversity and the ecosystems that provide the natural resources needed to survive.
Reduce, reuse and recycle
Food waste and other industrial waste suffocating landfills around the world contribute up to 5 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
But through recycling, re-using and reducing — a concept to minimise waste – those figures could be cut significantly and do good the world environment.
Here, Environment Africa continues to lead in this respect. At Hifa, which ended yesterday, the organisation worked with youth volunteers separating recyclable waste.
Collection of recyclable waste was done twice a day. The amount of general waste like food items after separation was very low.
“The success story at Hifa should encourage Zimbabweans to start separating waste at home, schools and in businesses,” said Environment Africa’s Sandra Gobvu.
Two weeks ago, Environment Africa and Plastix InL launched colour-coded bins for separation of waste and recycling at household level.
The organisation is also developing a recycling centre in Victoria Falls, which is expected to open before the UN tourism congress in August this year.
Despite its huge socio-economic and environmental benefits, in Zimbabwe, the recycling of waste still remains very poor, especially at household and local municipality levels.
God is faithful.
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