| National Tree Planting Day 10 December 2014 |
Wednesday, 15 April 2015
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Zimbabwe Situation
Zim govt sued over deforestation
A Zimbabwean farmer has taken the ZANU PF government to the High Court because of rampant deforestation around prime tobacco growing areas.
Never Gasho, a farmer in Karoi, is seeking to compel the government to stop the deforestation of indigenous trees.
He has argued in a court application that the alarming rate of deforestation in tobacco farming areas had prompted him to sue the government.
In his application filed on Tuesday last week, Gasho listed Parliament, the Ministers for Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Environment, Water and Climate, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Environment Management Agency and the Chiefs Council of Zimbabwe as respondents.
“We are all racing against time as people are cutting trees every minute indiscriminately in preparation for the next tobacco growing season,” he said.
Gasho said the respondent have a constitutional mandate to protect indigenous trees, and that policies must be formulated to prevent tobacco farmers from using indigenous trees during tobacco curing.
“The indiscriminate cutting down of trees has a serious effect on our weather pattern. The depletion of trees…reduces the value of our land as it slowly turns into a desert. Once the land turns into a desert we cannot give back the value of our indigenous trees,” he said.
Tobacco farming has witnessed a partial recovery in Zimbabwe since the land grab campaign that saw the agricultural sector face total collapse. More and more small scale farmers have been turning to tobacco because it is a ready ‘cash crop’, and this has seen an escalation in the numbers of producers.
The rest of the agricultural sector, including the production of critically needed food, remains stagnant.
Tobacco farmers reject deforestation charges
ZimSitRep over deforestion
NEWLY resettled tobacco farmers have rejected as nonsense, charges by some environmentalists that they were contributing to massive deforestation in some parts of the country through cutting down trees.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Tobacco Growers Association meeting held in Harare last week, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union director, Edward Tome, said newly resettled farmers were in fact practising better farming methods to fight deforestation compared to their predecessors.
Tome said tobacco farmers were planting trees each tobacco farming season in a programme he said was called Responsible Tobacco Production (RTP).
“We now have what is called the Southern Africa Deforestation Initiative where we are working hand-in-hand with the tobacco industry to provide seedlings of quick growing trees to tobacco farmers at no cost for planting and they are actually looking for more land to plant more trees,” said Tome.
“And all the contracting tobacco companies are now required to provide the quick growing trees to all their farmers at the maximum of 100 trees per hectare every year.
“We also work with the Forestry Commission where these seedlings are heavily subsidised. This has not started now because some environmentalists are raising the issue but we have been doing it for years,” he said.
Guy Mutasa, the president of the Tobacco National Farmers Union, said some contractors were also supplying farmers with coal which is being used in rocket barns.
“Rocket barns do not use any firewood except coal alone and these come included in a package with fertilisers and chemicals and this has cut on the deforestation,” he said.
“These people are criticising farmers now yet they are the same people who were also destroying forests when they were developing whatever they wanted in the past.
“We are also working with a local university to introduce biogas and solar tobacco curing barns and we hope very soon this will come into effect. This will also help us to produce better quality tobacco that will compete on the world market.
Mutasa said instead of making noise in the comfort of their air-conditioned offices, the environmentalists should come out in the field and see what is happening on the ground.
Since the land reform programme by the Zanu PF government was introduced and followed by the low maize producer prices, many newly resettled farmers have resorted to tobacco farming as it fetches more on the market.
This year, a kilogram of tobacco was selling for $4.85.
Deforestation now a serious threat
Deforestation now a serious threat
In Zimbabwe the cutting down of trees is increasing everyday due to massive tobacco farmers, shortage of electricity, and resettlement programs. The government must try its best to avoid deforestation.
Here is the story ny Financial Gazette on the issue of Deforestation.
via ‘Deforestation now a serious threat’ | The Financial Gazette by Nelson Chenga 12 Dec 2013
EVERY year Zimbabwe is losing tree cover equivalent to three times the size of Harare, the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe (FCZ) has revealed.
While the majority of trees are being felled for domestic use, a sizeable chunk of that vegetation is being consumed by tobacco farmers whose numbers have phenomenally rose over the past few years as the golden leaf remains the country’s only commercially viable crop on the back of a poorly performing agricultural sector.“The national rate of deforestation currently stands at more than 300 000 hectares per annum, of which approximately 15 percent is attributable to tobacco production activities (that include) land clearing for tobacco farming and collection of firewood for tobacco curing,” said Darlington Duwa, FCZ general manager, at a tree planting day event in Madziwa, Mashonaland Central on Saturday.
Simplified, the 300 000ha is equivalent to 3 000 square kilometres or three times the size of Harare, which is estimated to be covering an area just over 1 000 square kilometres.
Given the gravity of the matter, the Minister for Environment, Water and Climate, Saviour Kasukuwere, expressed grave concern at the rate of deforestation and said this had actually prompted government to institute statutory instrument 116 of 2012 that compels all flue-cured tobacco farmers to establish fast growing tree species for their future energy needs.
“Forests have a paramount contribution to make as engines of future sustainable development,” Kasukuwere emphasised adding: “Establishment of these woodlots will reduce pressure on the country’s indigenous woodlands and give them time to regenerate and recover.”
This year the tree planting day, annually set for every first Saturday of December, was commemorated under the theme: Forests for water and life.
Deforestation must be curbed
Deforestation must be curbed | The Herald
via Deforestation must be curbed | The Herald April 14, 2014 by Jeffrey Gogo
Zimbabwe tobacco industry is beginning to wake up to the realities of the amount of damage inflicted on the environment due to the production of the crop.
The Sustainable Afforestation Association (SAA), a six-month old coaltion of top tobacco firms, merchants and Government, has come up with an ambitious afforestation project to stem the unsustainable loss of 7,5 million trees each year to tobacco-related work.
Smallholder farmers are destroying that much amount of forests yearly or 15 percent of all deforestation, according to the Forestry Commission, obtaining firewood critical in the curing of tobacco, Zimbabwe’s biggest cash crop.
But that damage causes severe environmental headaches at a time of rapidly changing climates.
Deforestation and forest degradation contribute globally to approximately 17 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and carbon dioxide, the chief culprits behind global warming and climate change.
Yet, forests can act as sponges capable of removing those gases from the atmosphere and giving off indespensable oxygen.
Now, the SAA wants to build forests for the future.
The Association plans to spend approximately $33,5 million over the next seven years in programmes meant to curb deforestation from tobacco-related activities.
Until now, little effort has gone towards controlling the unsustainable levels of deforestation meted out, principally, by smallholder tobacco growers.
The money will be raised through a 0,5 percent levy on the country’s net annual tobacco earnings, Maggie Okore, chief executive of the SAA who are driving the project, said during a tour of a new plantation at Rothwell Farm in Zvimba last week. However, that levy will reach 1.5 percent in the current year to boost plantations growth.
“Tobacco is a national crop that brings immense revenue, but its production is destroying the environment. Through this afforestation project, we hope to minimise that damage,” said Okore.
From last year’s tobacco sales, the Association received over $3 million, part of which has already been used to plant 600 hectares or 1.3 million trees of the fast growing eucalyptus specie on leased land at Zvimba, Kadoma and Featherstone.
The first harvest will happen after seven years, Okore said, after which the timber will be sold to farmers at the prevailing market rates.
Between now and 2021, the SAA will plant, on the average, 5 000 hectares of forests every year at a cost of US$950 per hectare. That’s about 11 million trees each year.
The SAA does not have farms of their own, but have negotiated partnerships with land owners.
Farmers get 20 percent of output and can choose to continue with the project when the SAA eventually pulls out in 17 years, after three harvests.
The trees are planted during the rainy season to capitalise on the rains and avert moisture stress, now increasingly becoming common due to the increased frequecy of droughts.
“This is a very good project” said Lloyd Mubaiwa, a career forester who has regional experience working at SADC helping to establish plantation forests, and the SAA’s manager for Mashonaland West.
“It will serve as a model for the whole region. This has been a big stride by Zimbabwe in starting a project of this kind.”
Forests for the future
The project by the SAA is a good one for the future, but does nothing to address the critical deforestation crisis of the present day.
Seven years is too long a period to wait for benefits needed today to start manifesting.
For what we need immediately to curb deforestation or reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations through sequestration, the project achieves neither, at least not for the next several years.
However, if the SAA can sustain and meet the 66 million trees target by 2021, then those twin benefits might be fulfilled.
By estimate, it follows the Association’s projects will manage to surpass or equal the number of forests lost every year from tobacco-related work, if they can plant 11 million trees or 5 000ha yearly for the coming 7 years.
In the meantime, smallholder tobacco farmers, the biggest drivers of forest loss in the industry, continue to swell pausing new risks to Zimbabwe’s indigenous forests.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board expects the number of registered tobacco growers in the current year to rise 19.4 percent to 105 000.
More than 80 percent of the farmers will be small-scale, who practice poor farming methods that strain biodiversity.
What Zimbabwe needs to control deforestation linked to tobacco in the short-term is agressive action from Government and the private sector to push the use of cleaner alternative fuels such as solar.
“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done,” Ms Okore concurred.
“Yes we are planting trees, but it’s a drop in the ocean. There is need to vigourously pursue the issue of sustainable alternative fuels. This is a gap that needs filling.”
The TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said by email recently that their plan to promote coal, a dirty fossil fuel, was failing due to high costs.
Farmers were struggling to move the commodity from Hwange, which is over 800km from the main tobacco farming areas in Mashonaland and Manicaland.
The coal is sold in blocks of 40 tonnes at between US$150 and US$200 per tonne. Dr Matibiri said that the price was too steep for most smallholder farmers, unless it was sold in smaller quantities.
Coal is not a friend of the environment.
Its production and burning release methane gas and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the foremost gases driving global warming and climate change.
However, by using coal in tobacco curing, it was hoped forests would be spared to perform their carbon sink function, cancelling out emissions from coal.
Affordability, fire threat
If the SAA’s plants escape Zimbabwe’s runaway veld fires, which destroyed 1.2 million hectares of land in 2013, then they are likely to face resistance from farmers on pricing.
The current average price for a cube of timber is US$6,50. A cube equals 450kg of firewood.
So a farmer producing 20 bales of tobacco of average weight 120kg each will require at least US$312, excluding transport, to purchase 48 cubes of timber necessary to cure his crop in any one season.
That is 21 tonnes of firewood, using figures provided by the Tobacco Research Board in a previous interview that 9kg of wood cures a kg of tobacco.
The costs for transporting such a huge amount of firewood can easily put off anyone, let alone a communal farmer accustomed to harvesting a nearby forest where the major expense is that only of a well sharpened axe.
The failure in the coal project, where less than 30 percent of the farmers have taken up the alternative should provide valuable lessons as regards smallscale farmers’ attitude towards anything that increases production costs.
That is not to say the SAA ought to be stopped in its tracks, far from it. But Government should tighten the monitoring of the Statutory Instrument 116 of 2012, which, among other things, forces farmers to create woodlots on their lands for purposes of tobacco curing.
Stronger advocacy for adopting smarter energy alternatives should also be pursued.
Masvingo Province: Defortestation
Presented in the Parliament of Zimbabwe 2011 (M. Chiri (Mrs)
COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR-GENERAL
In Masvingo Province EMA failed to issue tickets to offenders for causing veld fires for
the period 2004 to 2005 and 2009. My review of Masvingo‟s seven districts revealed that
for the period 2004 to 2009 a total of 111 438 hectares were destroyed by fire. This led to
loss of vegetation, pastures, huts and animals. The causes of fires were attributed to
throwing of cigarette stubs, uncontrolled burning, poaching, clearing land for cultivation,
unattended fires and for most fires in 2009 the causes were not stated. Of major concern
was the lack of action by the provincial EMA office to address the situation for the period
under review. Only one awareness meeting was held in Bikita in 2008 after 49 000
hectares had been destroyed by hunters.
No prosecutions were made during 2006 to 2009 despite that 111 438 hectares of grazing
land were destroyed by veld fires. A total of forty four tickets for causing veld fires were
issued in 2007 and eleven tickets totaling Z$73 500 000 (US$2 450) had still not been
paid for by the time of the audit.
I noted that EMA was reactive rather than proactive in terms of fire management. For
instance at Belinahorne farm the farmers interviewed revealed that EMA officers only
issue tickets to the villagers after a fire outbreak without having done any awareness
programmes pertaining to fire management. This was corroborated by the documents
availed for audit which showed that no awareness programmes were done at that
particular farm.
Reports availed for audit revealed that Gutu district lost 6 180 hectares of arable land
during 2004 to 31 October 2009. A total of 37 tickets were issued to offenders for
causing fires in 2006, 2007 and 2008 while no tickets were issued for 2004, 2005 and
2009. For 2009 four (4) tickets were issued for non construction of fireguards. Tickets
were also not issued for non-construction of fireguards from 2004 to 2008. At Chomfuli,
Witland, Belinahorne, Dromore, Kepure and Chidza farms farmers did not construct
fireguards.
Curbing Deforestation in Zimbabwe
Failure to effectively control veld fires :THE FORESTRY COMMISSION and ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AGENCY(EMA)
According to Statutory Instrument No. 7 of 2007 it is the responsibility of EMA to
control and manage veld fires. This Statutory Instrument states that all land users, owners
or designated authorities are supposed to put in place appropriate fire prevention
measures (pre suppression measures) on their land. Section 68 of the Forest Act stipulates
that land users must construct standard fireguards on boundaries in order to control veld
fires.
Forestry Commission and EMA were failing to effectively control veld fires as evidenced
by the prevalent occurrence of veld fires. For example in 2004 over 2, 8 million hectares
were burnt across the country and this rose to over 7 million hectares in 2005. National
veld fire statistics from 2006 to 2008 were not availed for audit.
In response the Forestry Commission stated that it manages and fights veld fires in
gazetted forests while EMA deals with fires outside protected forests. EMA stated
that according to the Forestry Act, the main responsibility for fire control rested
with Forestry Commission. Further, it was stated that EMA’s responsibility for veld
fires was prescribed in Statutory Instrument 7 of 2007 which states that it only
supports the Forestry Commission in this role.
From the two responses, it was clear that Forestry Commission and EMA are not in
agreement as to their roles in the responsibility of managing forest fires. Therefore
the two entities should clarify the matter to ensure that the management of fire is
effectively addressed.
My visit to 4 provinces revealed that EMA was failing to adequately enforce fire guard
laws. This was evidenced by failure to issue tickets for contravening the Forest Act
despite that a massive destruction of vegetation occurred throughout the provinces during
the period under review. It was established that the problem of veld fires had become an
annual event in all provinces continuing to destroy large tracts of land, human life,
property, animals and other natural resources thereby disturbing the ecosystem.
EMA attributed their failure to enforce fireguards laws to lack of vehicles to enable
them to offer adequate extension services to resettled farmers including monitoring
and enforcement when fires occur. It was however pointed out that the Agency had
since purchased twenty one vehicles which were to be allocated to each province. In
addition EMA stated that the resettled farmers lacked resources and equipment to
construct fire guards.
24
From documentary review and interviews, I established that causes of veld fires were all
from anthropogenic2
activities which included;
deliberate lighting of fires by arsonists ( arson related fires were a result of the
struggle for land),
careless throwing away of lit cigarettes stubs by the public, burning to clear vegetation so as to expose game and make it easy to catch when
hunting, and burning to clear land for cultivation.
The effects of veld fires include forest degradation, reduction in economic value of
timber with fire scars, soil erosion, loss of property and lives. It also contributes to the
depletion of the ozone layer.
In Manicaland province veld fires continued to destroy large tracts of land throughout the
province. A total of 136 702, 45 hectares were extensively destroyed by fire during the
period under review. Despite fires being a major environmental challenge, only 25 tickets
were issued for contravening Section 68 of the Forest Act in 2007 and 2008 and those
that were issued with tickets did not pay their fines. An amount of Z$26 101 740
(US$870.06) was still outstanding at the time of audit. Indications were that EMA failed
to recover these outstanding amounts. No record of tickets issued to those who
contravened Section 68 of the Forestry Act for the period 2004 to 2006 and 2009 were
availed for audit.
From documentary review I discovered that 23 farmers were issued with orders by EMA
for failing to construct fireguards in June 2009 in Mutasa district. No further follow up
was done by the district officer to see if the orders were obeyed. No prosecutions were
made for the period 2004 to 2008 although cumulatively Mutasa district lost about 6
443.2 hectares of vegetation through veld fires. EMA was not getting veld fire statistics
from the villagers therefore the figures were sometimes not accurate as they relied much
on veld fire reports by resettled farmers. Proper reporting procedures were not being
followed as most fires were not being reported since farmers complained that they were
not being reimbursed their bus fare when they traveled to make fire reports to EMA and
the police. Section 10 (1) (b) of the EMA Act states that EMA should develop and
implement incentives for the protection of the environment. The incentives might come
in the form of bus fare refunds to people who would have reported fire incidences.
Nyanga district officer failed to produce monthly progress reports on veld fires for the
period 2004 to 2005. However, from 2006 to 2009 the district lost about 13 463 hectares
of vegetation. From interviews and physical farm inspections, I established that resettled
farmers were not aware of the requirements to have fireguards around their properties.
For example in Nyashitu resettlement area, Fairview and Green valley farms, the resettled
farmers failed to construct fireguards around their properties.
Anthropogenic2
- human induced activities
25
Resettled farmers from Ziwa resettlement area in the same district did not construct
fireguards. Farmers were not aware of the standard width of the fireguard. I also visited
Ziwa monuments which is an archaeological storage site surrounded by resettlements.
The area witnessed three veld fires in 2009 resulting in 2 500 hectares being burnt
threatening the survival of flora and fauna. The natural beauty of the landscape was
destroyed on this tourist site. The site officer blamed EMA on the failure to prevent or
control veld fires as no awareness programmes were being done to the surrounding
communities.
Despite two huge fire outbreaks at Brittania farm in Nyanga district in 2009, EMA did
not visit the farm to ascertain the extent of damage in terms of hectarage burnt. The
nearby Tsvingwe mountain was all burnt of its vegetation. In 2007 two huts were burnt
and other two huts were also burnt in 2006 at the same farm. Farmers were not sure of the
size of a standard fireguard as evidenced by one farmer who prepared a fireguard which
was only two meters wide, hence fire could easily cross over. ( Presented in Parliament of Zimbabwe 2011- by M. Chiri (Mrs)
COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR-GENERAL
)
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