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.