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SUSTAINZIM - THINK LIVE STAY GREEN!
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F E AT U R E
Community Participation in Sustainable Biodiversity Management By Violet Makoto, Forestry Commission
Bee keeping in Practice-A demonstration at Qalabuze apiary in Fatima Village (Menyezwa Ward-Hwange District)
The Government of Zimbabwe is implementing a five-year Global Environment Facility (GEF) - funded program to support conservation initiatives in North Western Zimbabwe. The project known as the Hwange-Sanyati Biological Corridor Program has the overall objective to develop land use and resource management capacity of managers and communities in the Hwange-Sanyati Biological Corridor (HSBC) of Zimbabwe and is executed through the World Bank.
T
he Project focuses on three key environmental components; Forestry, Wildlife and Landscape Management with the Worldwide Fund for Natu re ( W W F ) , Fo re s t r y Commission, Environmental Management Agency (EMA), Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Communal Areas Management Program fo r In d i g e n o u s R e s o u rce s (CAMPFIRE) as the implementing agencies. Th e Fo re s t r y C o mp o n e nt supports improved forest and wildlife management activities in two gazetted forests (Ngamo and Sikumi) in Hwange as well as REDD+ activities as a tool for good forest stewardship in Zimbabwe. The objective of this component is to improve forest and land management across the HSBC area by developing tools to
Headman Victor Bitu of Magoli Village ( Ward 15-Hwange District)“the Forests are ours, the animals are ours. Forestry Commission is only here to help monitor and regulate the use of our resources.�
address land degradation, land use change and deforestation. Through the project, there has been improvement in the capacity of the forest protection unit to deal with the challenges of wildlife and timber poaching as the project has made significant investments in improving radio communication for better responsiveness by the forest protection unit and improving game water supply. Overall this has facilitated an improvement in delivery on the implementation of forest management op e ration a l pl an s by the Forestry Commission. More significantly, the HSBC project is piloting a REDD+ sub project in the two forests in order to build national capacity on Reducing Emissions from D e fo re s t a t i o n a n d fo re s t Degradation (REDD) in the country. REDD+ takes a critical look at the role of conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks in developing countries. A total of 228 sampling plots have been established in Ngamo and Sikumi to quantify the above ground carbon stock for the purposes of trading on the carbon market. The potential social
