Environment
actices
n to
ental
ation
Stephen Tsoroti
M
any of the woodlands and
forests in communal areas are
fragmented and degraded as
increasing population pressure results
in ongoing clearance for agriculture and
harvesting for firewood, poles and other
products. An estimated 75,000 hectares
are converted annually to arable land,
with much of the fuel wood coming from
felled trees. Some communal lands no
longer have much natural woodland left
to an extend that women often have to
walk several kilometers to gather wood.
Most recently, traditional leaders
have made strong calls to incorporate
traditional methods of conserving the
environment as a way of combating
widespread degradation in the country’s
districts.
According
to
Shepard
Zvigadza,
Coordinator of the Climatic Change
Working Group (CCWG), different African
communities have incredible indigenous
knowledge that they can use in the
conservation of forests and biodiversity.
“Different communities have different
practices that they use in forestry
conservation.This
helps
preserve
biodiversity, as well as the forests because
these methods can only work if the forest
canopy is intact,” he says.
Chief Muzokomba of Buhera South
relates an example of how, in the old days,
they used to conserve the forest using
traditional methods.
Then, forests were no go areas such
that one had to ask for special permission
to wander in them. The traditional
leader lays part of the blame on religious
sects that have taken over shrines and
areas that used to be sacred as being
responsible for the massive degradation
of the environment.
“In our youthful days, culture forbade
any member of the community from
cutting down a tree, either for firewood
or any other purpose. People were also not
permitted to interfere with the taproots
or removing the entire bark of a tree for
herbal extraction,” he reminisces.
According to the Shona cultural beliefs,
one can only use tree branches for
firewood and fibrous roots for herbs. If
the bark of a tree has medicinal value,
then only small portions of it can be
removed by creating a “V” in the bark. The
wound is then sealed using wet soil.
“We believe that the soil helps in healing
the wound on a tree. This is cultural, and
we all believe that it is an abomination
for one to injure a tree, and not help it
heal,” said village head Mushuwa Honye
Mutuwa, of Mutiusinazita in Buhera
South.
This practice, he declares, has been
passed down from generation to
generation among community members
and it is this indigenous knowledge that
has aided the conservation of the Forest.
Such beliefs make the forests part of the
community, where community members
have feelings for the trees, and where
cutting down a tree could amount to
an offence against the “gods” and their
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culture.
Zvigadza concurs with both the Chief
and Headman, adding: “We have several
other communities all over the country
and the region who co-exist with forests.
They include the Tonga community
in Binga and the Kung community in
Botswana among others.”
But though Africans are indigenous,
there are some groups who survive by
hunting and gathering, while other groups
practice pastoralism and others practice
dry-land farming.
“The Bushmen of the Southern African
region, or the Ogiek community in Kenya
who live in forests are a typical example
of groupings categorised as indigenous,”
said Zvigadza.
He points out that Africa has more than
40 groupings in different countries that
survive entirely on hunting and gathering.
However, IPACC works closely with 155
communities from 22 African countries
who are recognised as indigenous because
of their historical and environmental
circumstances.
“We believe that traditional ecological
knowledge is the foundation for
appropriate and effective national
adaptation policies,” Zvigadza saya.
“One of the prevailing gaps in most of
the rural areas is that there is no land
tenure for communities who live in
forests, or depend on forests,” another
environmentalist, Stephen Manyenya,
says.
However, different countries have
started responding to the needs of their
local communities by including them in
their national climate change adaptation
strategies.
In recent years, the rate of clearance
of woodland in both the commercial
and resettlement areas has increased
markedly following changes in land
tenure accompanying land reform
programmes. Current figures suggest that
the rate of deforestation may be as high as
1, 5 percent per year, or t hree times the
estimated average over the period 19851992.
Other factors contributing to the high
rate of deforestation and degradation
across the country include unsustainable
harvesting practices, elephant damage in
some national parks and safari areas, as
well as frequent late dry-season fires.TP
April 2013
Page 45