From: barnhart@netcom.com (Aaron Barnhart)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: DROUGHT CRIPPLES REGREENI
Date: 20 Aug 92 05:40:49 GMT
Reply-To: barnhart@netcom.com
Organization: Netcom

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Africa, southern
Reference: Africa, southern; Women
Title: ZIMBABWE: DROUGHT CRIPPLES REGREENING EFFORTS


an inter press service feature

by eulalee thompson

seke, zimbabwe, aug 14 (ips)-- efforts by some women here to
counter deforestation and to supply wood for domestic use are
being crippled by the severe drought now ravaging the country.

in seke communal lands some 40 kilometres east of the
capital, harare, a group of 33 women of the zhanje community
last year planted 5,000 eucalyptus (gum) trees on a two-hectare
plot.

''the trees will need at least five years to mature but many
of them might never mature because of the drought'', vanencia
zhanje head of the group told ips.

despite seke's proximity to harare and its markets, many of
the villagers are seriously considering settling elsewhere.

unlike most of zimbabwe's communal lands, seke is a high
rainfall area but the soil in zhanje is ''tired'' after years of
tillage.

''thirty years ago when my family and i came to settle here,
there was a thick forest of indigenous trees that teemed with
wild animals.

''but all the trees have been cut down as people opened new
fields for cropping and of course some were chopped down for
fuelwood, building huts and for use as medicines'', zhanje said.

the land is bare now except for an odd shrub, villagers have
to buy fuelwood, and livestock is almost non-existent.

the severe drought which is a culmination of three successive
years of poor rainfall in most parts of the country has resulted
in a dwindling of water reserves and a quickening of the pace of
deforestation.

the fate of the zhanje woodlot and other similar projects
across the country is at stake as the drought, southern africa's
worst in living memory, intensifies. already more than 140,000
cattle have died in zimbabwe as their pastures whither.

some 4,5 millions among zimbabwe's 10 million people are now
dependent on government food handouts. zimbabwe, traditionally
a maize exporter, is currently importing thousands of tonnes of
the staple, costing 9.6 million u.s. dollars last month alone.
(more/ips)


zimbabwe: drought (2)

in the communal areas where 80 percent of zimbabweans live,
trees are the only source of domestic energy. there is no
electricity in these areas. the communal lands are marginal low-
rainfall areas where the disenfranchised blacks were forced on
to by successive british colonial regimes.

with independence in 1980, the government of president robert
mugabe raised hopes of an early redistribution of land. but
today 12 years later only some 65 000 families have been
resettled.

controversial legislation enacted this year allowing
government to buy blocks of the mainly-white owned commercial
farms to resettle landless blacks is yet to be implemented.

increasingly some officials see the ''re-greening'' of the
communal areas as key to improving the quality of living of
millions of peasants.

throughout the communal areas, women are the unsung heroes of
this afforestation programme while at central government level,
the forestry commission has been at the forefront of the
tree-planting exrcise.

''we have been encouraging people in the communal areas to
replant trees. our main intervention is to provide them with
seedlings at a give-away price'', forest officer for the seke
area, toindepi mushayabasa said.

a nursery of seedlings of the gum trees and some fruit trees
was started in seke 10 years ago by the forestry commission.
according to mushayabasa similar nurseries have sprouted in each
of zimbabwe's 55 districts.

the nursery in seke was expected to raise 40,000 seedlings
each year to be sold at between three and 30 u.s. cents each but
the drought is scuppering the project.

''we still have seedlings in the nursery and some of them have
died because of the erratic rainfall'', he told ips.

mushayabasa said also that although some families and schools
were participating in the replanting exercise, there could be
greater effort in the community. ''we try to put forward the
message of conservation but people are more concerned with their
immediate need for firewood'', he said. (end/ips/et/fc/oa/92)


-- 
Aaron (Barnhart@netcom.com) -- posting from Evanston, Illinois
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african