ZIMBABWE has a programme for promoting the recovery of threatened species from the list of endangered species.
Despite Government efforts, however, Zimbabwe continues to lose its biological diversity through deforestation and land degradation.
The provisions of the Parks and Wildlife Act control the introduction of exotic species into the country. Statutory provision for the protection of listed threatened species is applied where human activities prevent the recovery of their population.
The mechanism for in situ conservation is through the establishment of protected areas.
These areas cover 13 percent of the country and were established under the Parks and Wildlife Act.
They include parks and wildlife State land, botanical reserves and gardens.
In addition, commercial forest covers two percent.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR), implemented a programme of protected areas with the objective of conserving biodiversity specifically in unique ecosystems, such as those containing remnant species, in the region, which are now under threat.
To assist in the loss of biodiversity, rehabilitation and reclamation programmes were introduced under the Biodiversity Convention that incorporate biodiversity principles such as localised gully reclamation and catchment area rehabilitation, incorporating the goals and needs of the community within a total of 22 sites. The most outstanding is the Save Conservancy which incorporates 11 Rural District Councils (RDCs).
Other biodiversity conservation projects include the Botanical Garden’s Project and the Guruve North Biodiversity project.
Mechanisms for promoting the sustainable use of biological biodiversity include an enabling legislative framework which promotes the sustainable use of renewable biological resources.
User rights to forest and land resources belonging to the Government have been decentralised to RDCs.
The Forestry Commission has a herbarium at Chirinda Forest as well as a number of gene banks.
The gene bank for agricultural crops and their wild varieties in Zimbabwe is under the Crop Breeding Institute of the Department of Research and Specialist Services.
The National Herbarium of the Ministry of Agriculture houses a quarter of a million dried specimens representing plant biological diversity within Zimbabwe.
The garden includes ecological units representing all major types of vegetation in Zimbabwe with over 1 000 tree and shrub species collected from all parts of the country represented in forms of naturally occurring plant association with the long-term objective of creating replicas of indigenous vegetation.
Information collated on indigenous trees used by herbalists is compiled.
The Parks and Wildlife Act gives full rights to land owners to fully utilise and benefit from resources on private properties.
Economic benefits accrued from wildlife marketing are more attractive than from agricultural land use systems encouraging conservation of wildlife habitats.
The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) has focused on the development of local institutions for the management and sustainable utilisation of communal wildlife resources, enabling communities and families to benefit economically from wildlife in their areas.
The CAMPFIRE Programme is being applied to inshore fisheries in Lake Kariba and to the management of indigenous forestry resources in the Mutoko District.
In 1988, 1989 and 1992 the Government of Zimbabwe implemented the Mountain Pilot Project Initiatives for Biodiversity Conservation.
Mountains in Zimbabwe occupy a relatively small proportion of the country’s total area.
The main range is located in the Eastern Highlands, Manicaland Province.
The 300-km eastern border with Mozambique is dominated by a series of dramatic and beautiful mountain ranges that constitute a formidable natural barrier.
The unique eastern region, with its crisp mountain air and infinite scenery, has an inimitable scenic character from gentle downs to precipitous cliffs covered in dark forests, deep gorges and spectacular waterfalls; from bare granite peaks to slopes covered with dwarf musasa woods found only on westward facing slopes, to the giant red mahogany trees in the Chirinda Forest – the largest form of plant life in Zimbabwe.
In these unspoiled, lightly populated areas, wildlife is also present.
Here, duikers, bushbuck, the rare samango monkey, eland and sable are frequently seen.
The bird life is particularly prolific, for the forests and open heathland provide habitat for a great number of species.
Eagles and other birds of prey are also a common sight here.
These are some of the incomparable biodiversity of the area that need protection and conservation.
The area encompasses Juliasdale, Chipinge, Mutare, Nyanga, Chimanimani and the Vumba.
The greatest proportion of the mountain land consists of very steep rocky terrain unsuitable for agriculture.
Up to 32 percent of the highlands consist protected national parks and forest land.
Large scale commercial farms occupy 50 percent of the highlands, with specialised plantation crops such as tea, coffee, wattle and pine dominating the farming system in the sector.
In the communal lands, such as the Rusitu Valley, Honde and Katiyo, smallholder coffee, tea and fruit are commonly grown.
The traditional farming systems in Manicaland included stone terraces and ridges formed to control erosion on the slopes.
The Rural Development Programme in the extensive Eastern Highlands integrates conservation, erosion control and promotional aspects through such means as the planting of vetiver grass.
Under the Natural Resources Act, the Mapembe Mountain in the Eastern Highlands was declared a protected area by the Natural Resources Board. Implemented in 1992, the Mapembe Forest project has a public participation component.
The community is empowered in terms of access to the resources and benefits accruing, attaching value to biodiversity for the multiple purpose of species, including economic, medicinal and cultural.
Local knowledge systems, in terms of management and use of different species for medicinal and traditional ceremonies, are also incorporated within the project.
The unique Mapembe Mountain Conservation Project was requested by the local communities to protect the mountain environment as a conservation area, which in turn protects the cultural value of the mountain.
The Mapembe Forest project is community-based, with full participation in the protection of the mountain ecosystem, both for ecological and cultural reasons.
There are 22 other sites, but do not include public participation, although Wedza Mountain and Nyachowa Falls take in an element of consultation and participation by the local inhabitants.
Delays in the implementation of the Hwedza Mountain Project have occurred because the request did not come from the local communities but from the Hwedza Intensive Conservation Area committee.
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant and is a published author in her field.
For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com
