Beautiful forests in Zimbabwe

Chirinda  Forest (picture by B. Wursten)

Now in the Chirinda area. An area of absolutely beautiful forest. I found it to be similar to the Bvumba forest, but the canopy is higher, the trees bigger and older. Coming from the border quite late in the day you can find a place to stay. You can see your maps the obscure marking, “Big Tree” and  a couple of signs saying the same. What  is this Big Tree ? Ah Yes, Its very enormous.The Chirinda Forest Reserve covers about 950 ha of primary evergreen forest on the slopes of Mt Selinda in SE Zimbabwe. It is one of the larger protected forest areas in the country with a unique combination of tropical and subtropical vegetation species. Most impressive are the towering specimens of forest trees, such as Chrysophyllum gorungosanum, Ficus chirindensis, and the famous "Big Tree", Khaya anthotheca, Argomuellera macrophylla, Celtis mildbraedii, Strychnos mellodora and Strychnos mitis are among the rare species, whiare only found in the Chirinda Forest.

Mount Selinda (picture by B. Wursten)

Its flat and there is even a braai area, albiet somewhat overgrown, so we decide to camp there for the night. In the dying night we take a quick walk to find the fabled tree. It turns out to be a big tree, the legends are true. Its a huge tree reaching up above the canopy, with ancient roots spreading out into the underbush.

That night, trying to finish off some of the cans we’d inherited from the Morrungulo food, we dine on tinned asparagus and butter beans with tomato, served on water crackers. It goes down well. After dinner we sat in the dark and watched while hundreds of blinking fireflies layed trails of dashes in the forest around us.

Bvumba Forest (picture by B. Wursten)

In the morning after another walk in the forest you can head to the closest town, Chipinge, where we stop for a new tyre and some supplies, then we drive on to the next stage of our adventure, a hike in the Chimanimani mountains.The Bvumba Mountains, in the Eastern Highlands is overflowing with life all year round. The lush botanical gardens and luxuriant forests are fantastic for walks, espeically for those interested in botany and bird watching. The mountains offer some spectacular views over the highlands and tropical lowlands of Mozambique. With plenty of activities and accommodation to choose from, the mists of Bvumba mountains make it a great escape from the heat.

Beautiful forests in Africa

Tasmania's Tarkine Rainforest. (Photo: Alice Hansen/Tourism)

Dense rainforests filled with exotic plants and unusual creatures have always been alluring to adventure-seekers. The rise of the modern eco-tourism industry has made it easier for casual nature-lovers to experience jungle landscapes without a pith helmet and machete.A wider range of natural landscapes is, of course, included in the industry's destination options, but the exotic and teeming jungle is surely the most appealing of all.Read more: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tourism/stories/the-8-best-rain-forest-destinations-that-you-havent-visited.

Darien National Park. Photo: light brigade/Flickr

Headlining rain forest destinations, like the vast Brazilian Amazon, the lush jungles of Borneo, and the   booming nature-tourism hot spot of Costa Rica are well known in eco-tourism circles. Thanks to media coverage from cable channels and glossy magazines, these places are household names for people with only a passing interest in rain forest tourism.

Dominica (Photo: Alice Hansen/Tourism

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tourism/stories/the-8-best-rain-forest-destinations-that-you-havent-visited-yet#ixzz3U3ZGU6oT

 Most of the Amazon rain forest sits in Brazil, but one of the most exciting eco-tourism destinations in the forest is in the lowlands of Peru. The Manu Wilderness is home to more plants and animals than almost any other natural area on Earth. Hundreds of mammal species and 1,000 species of birds call these dense forests home, while 15,000 types of plants have been cataloged inside Manu's borders. The forests here are as pristine as any other rain forest vacation destination, but the wildlife is the real reason to come to Manu. Jaguar, tapir and primate sightings are commonplace. .

Recycling Waste Material

Gully waste and Road Sweepings have proven to be a valuable resource with many materials being recovered for re-use Recovering these materials does not only offer a sustainable solution for this waste and help organisations increase their recycling ratios but also offers great economical savings.

Recently, Environment Africa (EA) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSDZ) facilitated the establishment of viable Waste Management Enterprises in Zimbabwe The Waste Management Enterprises project, potential waste management entrepreneurs and those who are already in the business were taken through a Community-Based Waste Management and Business Management course, which ran for three days over a period of three weeks.

Resident carrying waste for recycling.(picture from Newsday)

Due to the influx of waste pickers at designated sites like the Pomona Dumpsite, pickers are required to register with Harare City Council. The move was interpreted as a way of limiting the number of waste pickers at the dumpsite and as a way of raising revenue on the part of council.

Gerald Gwariro (32) from Hatcliffe — a suburb about 15km north of Harare’s Central Business District says waste collection has been his source of livelihood since he lost his job as a tailor some five years ago.

“I have been surviving on picking up waste material like bottle tops, empty soft drinks and beer cans, empty plastic water bottles, cardboard boxes and scrap metal. We take these to LFT. LFT in turn makes bins, baskets and bags for sale.

“The proceeds from the sale of these items pays school fees for my three siblings because our parents died of HIV four years ago,” Gwariro said.

Waste cans ready for recycling (picture from Newsday)

The course was aimed at enhancing community-based, small-scale waste management entrepreneurs’ understanding of the recycling business and enterprise development and in turn enable community members to turn waste into a saleable commodity.

Seventeen participants from different community-based waste management groups in Harare were awarded with certificates of completion of the course.

The line of business of the participants ranged from waste collection, plastic recycling, (paper recycling) hand-paper-making and waste refurbishment.

At the end of the course each participant had produced a business plan and Environment Africa with the support of RAZ, will assist the qualifying participants with start-up loans and soft loans to start or boost their enterprises.

The establishment of viable Waste Management Enterprises will contribute to the curbing of pollution problems currently being faced in Zimbabwe and divert a considerable amount of waste from the dumpsite.

“By encouraging partnerships, combining environmental welfare and conservation tasks with community empowerment, employment and alternative income generation, this initiative sets an example for community-based waste management and Public Private Community Partnerships (PPCPs).

Dispose garbage properly!

Failure by the local authorities to collect refuse has resulted in urban dwellers dumping it at open sites as well as peri-urban areas causing pollution.

The solution lies in mobilising towns and cities towards building local Solid Waste Management Plans. These plans which include waste collection, storage, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid wastes are to be implemented at the municipal level.

A plan adopted from India’s Ministry of Environment (September 2000 “Municipal Solid Waste Management & Handling Rules) gives local Zimbabweans a blue print towards Sustainable waste management.

A State Pollution Control Board needs to be established whose sole responsibility is to:

1) Authorise the setting up waste processing and disposal facilities.

2) Monitor air and water quality and compost quality.

Further plans include:

Waste Segregation

“Municipal authority shall organize awareness programmes for segregation of wastes and shall encourage recycling / reuse of segregated materials.The municipal authority shall undertake phased programme to ensure community participation in waste segregation.”

Waste Collection:

To prohibit littering, municipal authorities should take the following steps:

Organise house to house collection of solid wastes. Devising collection of waste from slums and squatter areas and localities including hotels, restaurants, office complexes and commercial areas. Wastes from slaughter houses, meat and fish markets, fruits and vegetable markets, which are biodegradable in nature, shall be managed to make use of such wastes. Collected waste from residential areas shall be transferred by hand-driven containerized carts or other small vehicles.

Horticultural and construction or demolition wastes or debris shall be separately collected.

Waste garbage like dry leaves shall not be burnt.

Refuse truck

Water pollution

Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels (international down to individual aquifers and wells). 

Mining is another major source of water pollution in the country. The release of metals such as zinc, copper, iron, cobalt and nickel into water sources contaminates the water.The presence of iron in water, for example, has some detrimental effects on people’s health.

Polluted river

If consumed in excess, iron can result in severe stomach pains and the damaging of internal organs especially the brain and liver.Excessive intake of zinc in water leads to health complications such as neurological damage, anaemia, bone marrow failure and damage to the central nervous system.

In addition, the high exposure to nickel has some negative health effects such as skin rash, asthma-like reactions, bronchitis and poor lung function. A significant number of mines in Zimbabwe use chemicals such as cyanide and mercury to process their minerals.

Cyanide and mercury are associated with a number of health effects such as kidney and brain damage, skin rashes, gene damage and failure of the central nervous system among other detrimental health failures.Therefore, properly functional treatment plants should be constructed, where these chemicals would undergo a chemical degrading process to reduce their toxicity levels before disposing them in water bodies.

Zimbabweans should draw lessons from the Minamata mercury disaster in Japan in the 1970s, which resulted in the contamination of the whole Minamata bay by mercury, leading to the loss of fish and human life.

Afforestation

In view of the alarming rate of deforestation in Zimbabwe's rural areas, the government has initiated a Rural Afforestation Programme which is now being implemented by state agencies, with the help of national and international non-governmental organizations. The main objective of this programme is to grow trees, mainly gum trees (Eucalyptus spp.), to provide communities with a source of fuelwood and with poles for construction. The ultimate aim of the programme is to encourage people to use gum trees for these purposes, to help save the few remaining indigenous forests. The implementation of the programme has been facilitated by the relaying of information and recommendations from government departments and research centres. In addition to these formal knowledge networks, local farmers, in their day-to-day struggle to survive, have established their own informal networks to exchange information on conservation forestry.

Despite reduced population pressure and intensified forestry extension efforts, deforestation continues to be a problem in the northeastern part of Zimbabwe. The Forestry Commission set up the Rural Afforestation Programme to tackle this problem. The Commission's mandate includes conservation forestry, forestry research and forestry extension. As the Forestry Commission is understaffed, most of the fieldwork is carried out by the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX). In addition, several national and international agencies and NGOs are directly or indirectly involved in the programme. The formal knowledge networks connecting these agencies, through which knowledge and information are generated and disseminated, play an important coordinating role within the Rural Afforestation Programme, but they also have their weaknesses. Communication between researchers, extensionists and local farmers is generally poor, because of the top-down approach.

The Rural Afforestation Programme makes better use of the complementarity of the formal and informal knowledge networks. In the first place, forestry researchers at both station and national level, and other technical interveners, such as extension agents, take into account the agroecological and socioeconomic situation, local knowledge and the informal research carried out by local communities. Research seeks to address problems and constraints identified by the farmers themselves.

Air pollution

Air Pollution is the introduction of substances or surplus energy as waste products of human activities into the atmosphere which directly or indirectly adversely alter or destroy the quality of the environment or cause undesirable effects on man, animals, vegetation or materials. The wastes may be gaseous or particulate emissions.

In recent years Zimbabwe has experienced a rapid expansion in the national vehicle population, increased investment in the manufacturing sector and higher energy demand. These have resulted in high emission rates of major air pollutants resulting in a deterioration of the ambient air quality especially in the major cities of Harare,Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Kwekwe.

Industrial emission

Zimbabwean industries are located in the large cities namely Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Kwekwe. Typical examples of industrial emissions include sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) and particulate matter. Most of emissions originate from industrial processes such as metallurgical plants and smelters, chemical plants and petroleum refineries, cement production, fertilizer and synthetic rubber manufacturing, pulp and paper milling. Heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.) are emitted from smelters, brass works and secondary lead plants and coal combustion. 

The area of concern is the location of the industries in many cities. Many industries are situated between residential areas and any pollutants emitted by the industries are dispersed and eventually deposited in the residential areas resulting in serious impacts on the health of the residents. For example the heavy industries in Harare are situated to the east of the densely populated areas of the city. The wind blows from east to west during most the year and so the pollutants are carried and eventually deposit in the main residential areas. The same situation exists in Gweru and Kwekwe where the large smelters are very close to the residential areas.

Disposing old vehicles

An end-of-life vehicle (or ELV) is a car or light commercial vehicle which is to be disposed of by the registered owner (in other words, a car or small van which is to be scrapped). Owners of intact end-of-life cars and vans must deposit such vehicles at an appropriately permitted or licensed authorised treatment facility (ATF). An authorised treatment facility may not charge for accepting an end-of-life vehicle. When one of these vehicles is deposited at an authorised treatment facility, the owner will receive a certificate of destruction.

The disposal of end-of-life vehicles is controlled because they can pose a threat to the environment. This is largely because of the hazardous materials contained in end-of-life vehicles. These include, for example, lead acid batteries, fluids including lubricating oil, coolant, brake fluid, and catalytic convertors, all of which must be disposed of safely in order to prevent pollution.(as amended) sets out specific measures to be put in place by Member States concerning the collection, storage, treatment, dismantling, reuse and recycling of end-of-life vehicle.

An end-of-life vehicle is a specified vehicle, such as a car, which is discarded or is to be discarded by its registered owner as waste. Vehicles normally reach the end of their useful lives, either due to age (typically around 12-14 years), or because of heavy damage following an accident. There is no fixed age, therefore, at which a vehicle can be considered an end-of-life vehicle.

An end-of-life vehicle must be deposited at an authorised treatment facility. Each vehicle manufacturer or importer is required to have a national collection system in place made up of at least one such treatment facility in every city and council area. These facilities provide a free take-back service for vehicles of that producer’s brand. There may also be an independent facility in your area that will accept your end-of-life vehicle.

If an end-of-life vehicle is deposited at an unauthorised facility, the owner will not receive a certificate of destruction and may remain recorded as registered owner of the vehicle on the Department of Transport, Tourism andSport’s National Vehicle File.

Environmental awareness campaign

 In partnership with  Bulalwayo Chicken Slice ,  the Environmental Management Agency, and Bulawayo City Council , the NUST students are going to carry out a clean up campaign on the 14th of March at Eghodini bus terminus in the city centre.The campaign aims to show that  Chicken Slice is environmentally responsible. this will encourage vendors and any other people of Bulawayo to desist from dumping trash carelessly.

Environmental education has been conceived as a process of recognising the value and various concepts of the environment. This is aimed at determining the skills and approaches necessary for understanding the relationship between the biophysical and human environments. The relationship between the environment and health cannot be over emphasised.

  Keep it where it belongs!

NUST has done such cleanings in the C.B.D to enhence environmental awareness.Some of the awareness campaigns which have been done in have not been very effective because of lack of competent human resources and appropriate environmental awareness methods as well as information. The group therefore aims to help such programmes with human resources and strategic methods to any organisation which is willing in participation and in research for any awareness programme or environmental issues of concern to provide reliable and efficient details for the entire awareness programme.

'Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to proenvironmental behavior?’ is extremely complex. By ‘pro-environmental behavior’it  simply mean behavior that consciously seeks to minimize the negative impact of one’s actions on the natural and built world (e.g. minimize resource and energyconsumption, use of non-toxic substances, reduce waste production).