2 THE CHANGE DRIVERS

Zimbabwe is undergoing a number of social, economic, political and technological changes that have a bearing on the country’s forest resources. Some of these changes are presented in this chapter.

2.1.1 Population

According to census records, Zimbabwe’s human population was 10.4 million in 1992 and was estimated at 12.2 million in 1997, given an annual growth rate of 2.5% per annum. Declining mortality rates have been largely credited for the rapid increase in the country’s population over the years although the effect of the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic on population growth still remains to be seen.

The 1997 male to female population ratio was 1:1.05 with 47% of the people being under 15 years of age. Such a growing population structure poses great challenges to the country’s biodiversity as the demand for natural resources continues to increase. This is worsened by the fact that about 66% of the country’s population lives in rural areas where because of poverty, people tend to rely on natural resources such as forests for their survival. Furthermore, there are more people per unit area in the wetter (e.g. NRI & II) than the drier areas (NR III to V) of the country (Table 2.1). This has led to greater exploitation of natural resources through the opening of large tracts of land for cultivation and increased demand on forest goods and services in the former areas. The opening up of forest land for agricultural expansion is in fact the major reason for the loss of the country’s forest biodiversity as an estimated 70,000 ha of forest land is lost to agriculture each year. Consequently, it is now difficult to find pristine miombo woodlands on the central watershed of Zimbabwe as most have disappeared to give way to cropping and grazing land. Similar negative impacts of population concentrations on natural resources are evident in areas around urban and rural service centres. The rampant land degradation that results from such activities are contributing to the siltation of the country’s major water sources such as the Save River. Projections into the next two decades indicate that these trends are likely to continue with an automatic increase in the demand for forest resources and enhanced land degradation.

Table 2.1

Human population density and natural resource exploitation by natural region in selected districts of Zimbabwe

Source: Shumba et al, 1998.

2.1.2 Social and cultural issues

Zimbabwe’s population is diverse. About 98% of the population consists of indigenous Africans, while the remainder is mostly made up of whites and coloureds. The indigenous inhabitants are mostly of Shona and Ndebele origin.

The rural to urban push in search of employment opportunities has led to the migration of the male population to urban centres leaving their families in the rural areas. Such an arrangement guarantees the family social security in the event of loss of a job or retirement. This "dual economy" system gives indigenous people the right to a piece of land in the communal area even if they are gainfully employed elsewhere. Such an arrangement is said to sometimes lead to serious competition for limited resources as more people may claim pieces of land for cultivation and grazing rights for security and not for productive purposes.

Families are patrilineal among the dominant population groups. In the event of a marriage, men pay a bride price to the family of the prospective wife. This gives the man uxorial rights to the woman for as long as the couple is married. Furthermore, the traditional land tenure system does not allow women to own land. These factors tend to affect the status of women in society. However, this situation is now changing as the crucial role of women in various spheres of economic life including natural resource management and utilisation is being recognised. Some of the traditional values that have assisted in the sustainable use of natural resources in Zimbabwe include the following:

Traditional rules and regulations that forbid the cutting of fruit trees and other "sacred" tree species for uses such as fuelwood and construction; and,

The use of one side and position of a tree to harvest roots or bark for traditional medicines. This deterred people from exploiting the same tree before it had sufficiently regenerated.

Unfortunately some of the above conservation sensitive traditional beliefs and customs are breaking down.

2.1.3 Poverty

As is the case in most developing countries, Zimbabwe has high poverty levels. The definition of poverty considers the ability of a household or individual to meet basic needs of food, clothing, education, health, transport and shelter. Results of a 1995 poverty assessment study conducted in the country are depicted in Table 2.2. According to the study, 62% of the country’s households are poor with 46% of them living in absolute poverty as they can hardly afford basic food requirements. Furthermore, the majority of such poor households are headed by women. The table also shows that:

Poverty is more prevalent in rural areas where 72% of the households are poor compared to 46% in the urban areas.

Within the rural areas poverty is more widespread in communal areas (where 81% of the households are poor) followed by the small scale commercial farms and resettlement areas (68%) and large scale commercial farms (51%) in that order.

It is important to note that 93% of the study sample indicated that poverty levels are on the increase. Given the foregoing high poverty levels in the country, people are venturing into unsustainable livelihood strategies such as cultivation of marginal areas and tree cutting for timber and non timber products. These activities are contributing to increased environmental degradation and have become part of the poverty cycle whereby people are unable to take proper care of the environment.

Table 2.2 The poverty profile in Zimbabwe

Source: Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Development Fund, 1996

Zimbabwe’s per capita income in 1996 was US$ 718 based on a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and foreign exchange. The dominant sectors and their contribution to GDP in 1996 were as follows: manufacturing, 17%; agriculture and fishing, 15%; forestry, 3%; and distribution, hotels and restaurants (which include tourism), 18%.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been undergoing some changes since 1991 due to the implementation of Z$ 85.5 billion (in nominal terms) and a population of 11.9 million people. However, in real terms, the GDP per capita has declined from US$ 271 in 1980 to US$ 201 in 1996 largely due to high inflation and the depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar.

The country’s economy depends heavily on natural resources for generating employment, income of economic reform programmes, namely; the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, ESAP (1991-1995) and the Zimbabwe Programme of Reform for Economic and Social Transformation, ZIMPREST (1996-1999).

The seven major policy objectives of these economic reform programmes were:

trade and investment liberalisation;

removal of trade restrictions;

deregulation of financial and labour markets;

removal of price controls;

attainment of a 5% annual growth in GDP;

reduction in the national budget deficit; and,

reform of public enterprises and the rationalisation of the civil service.

While the first four objectives were largely met, the last three have been more difficult to achieve due to a number of constraints. These include persistent droughts, government’s assumption of parastatal debts, delayed disbursement of external financial support for the reform programmes and increased expenditure on issues such as the AIDS pandemic. Furthermore, the economic structural adjustment programmes have put considerable pressure on biological resources as more people turn to them in response to declining real incomes from the fiscal and monetary policy changes. Table 2.3 shows that most of the key macroeconomic indicators in the economy have performed badly between 1995 and 1999. Key features include a shrinking GDP; reduced growth of the dominant productive sectors namely agriculture, manufacturing, mining and tourism; a growing external debt burden; and high inflation. This trend has continued to worsen up to now. It is against the foregoing sombre background that government launched the 18 months Millennium Economic Recovery Programme in February, 2000. The programme seeks to achieve the following broad objectives:

consolidate fiscal policies;

accelerate and complete the public enterprise reform;

stabilise prices at lower levels;

lower interest rates;

stabilise the value of the Zimbabwe dollar and resolve the foreign currency crisis;

deepen financial sector reforms;

stimulate the growth of the productive sector;

build confidence;

protect vulnerable social groups; and,

establish accountable implementation and monitoring institutions.

The objectives are aimed at removing the fundamental causes of inflation and to restore macroeconomic stability in order to create an economic environment that is conducive to low interest rates, sustainable investment capabilities, stable real incomes and poverty mitigation. If properly implemented the programme will, among other things, have the following impacts:

Boost the performance of the agricultural, manufacturing, mining and tourism sectors which failed to respond to previous economic reforms.

Reduce poverty levels in both the rural and urban areas and thus reduce the over reliance on natural resources such as forests for survival.

Increase financial resources to statutory agencies who regulate the utilisation of natural resources.

Table 2.3 Trends in the key macroeconomic indicators in the Zimbabwean economy: 1995-1999

Source: Central Statistics Office, 1999

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, 1999

2.3.1 Policy frameworks

The Forest Act and the Communal Lands Forest Produce Act (CLFPA) are the principal pieces of legislation that govern the exploitation and protection of forest and woodland resources in Zimbabwe. This is achieved through the establishment of conditions for and regulation of the magnitude to which forest produce may be utilised. Despite post independence amendments, the two Acts largely retain the colonial ap proach to natural resource management. On the other hand the Parks and Wildlife Act (PWLA) is the principal piece of legislation regulating the conservation and utilisation of wildlife resources of the country.

As is evident from its title, the CLFPA finds its application in the communal areas which were assigned for African occupation. This Act imposes a rather strict regulatory framework which is highly state interventionist as it vests the administration of exploitation of all communal area forest produce with the Minister. However, a range of authorities are provided for, and these cover licences, agreements and permits. Exploitation of forest produce by communal area inhabitants is restricted to "own use" and the sale or supply of any forest produce to any other person is prohibited. Consequently, the CLFPA effectively removes the management of natural forest resources from the inhabitants of its area of application. Firstly, the Minister is vested with the authority to exploit the forest resource on behalf of the State. In cases where a forest falls within the jurisdiction of a local authority, control over the resources therein lies with the appropriate Rural District Council, which has the right to grant concessions to outsiders to utilise forest products for commercial purposes. However, the limitation of the right for inhabitants to exploit forest produce for "own use" prevents local level initiatives for the sharing or exchange of resources and fails to acknowledge the centrality of woodland resources within the rural economy.

While the Forest Act seeks to be broad in its coverage of forest resources throughout the country, it finds is primary focus on State forests and on forest resources occurring on lands, most of which comprise the predominantly white large scale commercial farming sector.

The controls of the Forest Act over private forests are less strict and provides a somewhat self regulatory control mechanism for the management of private forest resources by their owners. The Forest Act prima facie prohibits the harvesting, injury or destruction of any indigenous trees or timber from private forests and forest produce from any State land except in terms of a valid timber permit issued with the consent of the appropriate authority for the land. It has been argued that security of tenure and flexibility in the provisions of the Forest Act have contributed to good forest biodiversity conservation on privately owned land.

The Forest Act provides for the establishment of demarcated forest areas and establishes a Commission to serve as the State authority mandated with the dual responsibility of providing policy advice to the Minister responsible for the administration of the Act and of performing regulatory functions. The regulatory functions deal with the control, management and exploitation of State forests, plantations and forest nurseries belonging to the State and any other land as may be required by the State for forestry purposes.

In line with the provisions of the Forest Act, government gazetted 800,000 ha of indigenous forests in the fragile Kalahari sands of western Zimbabwe in the 1940s. However, biodiversity conservation in these forest areas is being threatened by neighbouring communal area inhabitants who illegally settle or obtain timber and non timber forest products from them. Plans are now underway to replace the colonial protectionist approach to conserving these forests to one which considers communities living on the "forest edge" as partners in the conservation, management and utilisation of the forests through resource and benefit sharing arrangements.

The Parks and Wildlife Act (PWLA) sets out six types of protected areas which may be established, namely national parks, safari areas, sanctuaries, botanical gardens, botanical reserves and recreational parks; each with a specific objective. Currently the Parks and Wildlife Estate constitutes 13% of the total land mass of the country. The purposes of these parks include the preservation and protection of the natural landscape, scenery of wildlife and plants and the natural ecological stability of wildlife and plant communities found therein with the ultimate objective being public enjoyment; education and inspiration. All human activities in the parks are prohibited except as provided in a permit, licence or other authorisation issued by the responsible authority. Appropriate authority status for wildlife in communal areas is granted to Rural District Councils (RDCs) to exploit wild animals and plants on behalf of the communities they serve.

The government of Zimbabwe regards wildlife utilisation as a viable, legitimate and sustainable land use system; which may be most appropriate in agriculturally marginal areas. This is partly because wildlife makes better use of available vegetation compared to livestock and has many marketable uses apart from the provision of game meat. Furthermore, the local wildlife industry has a comparative advantage in world markets due to the presence of unique large mammals and high ecological diversity. Consequently, in 1975 the government took a bold positive step in the area of wildlife conservation by putting provisions in the PWLA which allowed the "custodial ownership" of wildlife by private landholders. The fact that land owners could benefit from the use of wildlife on their land encouraged them to invest in wildlife management by establishing game ranches. In addition, the PWLA was further amended to give appropriate authority status to RDCs so that they could manage and benefit from wildlife within the communal areas. This saw the inception of the Communal Area Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) programme and 33 of the country’s 55 RDCs are participating in this programme. As a result of CAMPFIRE, communities now perceive wildlife as an asset with value and not merely posing a threat to life, property, crops and domestic stock. On average, CAMPFIRE projects in Zimbabwe generate over Z$ 25 million annually, 90% of which comes from the hunting of elephants, buffalo, sable, antelope, etc. In addition to income directly accruing to participating households, local communities have put up schools, grinding mills, electric fences and sales depots using revenue from the CAMPFIRE programme.

2.3.2 Institutional arrangements

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism through its line departments (the Forestry Commission, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management) is the major player in forest biodiversity management. Other sectors such as agriculture, construction and water have both direct and indirect impacts on forest resources.

The Forestry Commission, in its capacity as the State forest authority, is responsible for the in situ and ex situ conservation of forest biodiversity and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management is in charge of the wildlife component. The Department of Natural Resources is responsible for regulating and enforcing broader environmental issues, while the Department of Rural and Urban Planning formulates local by-laws for resource conservation with the involvement of Rural District Councils, who are closer to the natural resources. A number of other government and non governmental organisations are also involved in various aspects of forest management albeit to varying degrees. Given the complementary roles played by these institutions in the maintenance of forest biodiversity the need for cross sectoral linkages cannot be over emphasised.

The Forestry Commission’s operations are guided by the Forest Act of 1948 which gives it authority to protect forests and woodlands and to govern the exploitation of forest resources. The Commission interacts with other government departments and a plethora of NGOs in the performance of its tasks. However, despite the complementarity of its work with that of NGOs, there is considerable mistrust among these players.

The Natural Resources Act of 1942 governs the functions of the department of Natural Resources and covers all natural resources including forests, water, soil, air and minerals. The department’s functions generally involve monitoring, regulation and enforcement of rules on environmental conservation. However, the distinction between its regulatory functions and those of the Forestry Commission in forestry matters is unclear.

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management is responsible for managing the country’s parks which contain a large part of the country’s forest biodiversity. However, vegetation resources in National Parks are largely viewed as "food" for the animals, with their conservation being accorded a subordinate role. This is worsened by the lack of joint planning between the Department and the Forestry Commission on forest conservation matters.

Although forests provide crop nutrients through leaf litter and regulate waterflow and infiltration, the role of trees and woodlands in agriculture is not clearly articulated in Zimbabwe’s agricultural policy. This has contributed to the rather poor positive linkages between agriculture and forestry.

According to Table 2.4, nearly half of Zimbabwe’s energy requirements are supplied by the traditional energy sector (in the form of fuelwood and charcoal). On the consumption side, 51% of this energy is utilised in the household sector. A 1997 survey revealed that 90% of rural households depend on woodfuels for their daily cooking as well as for water and space heating at an average annual consumption of 4 tonnes per household. About 15% of this fuelwood is purchased from rural markets and not directly gathered from the forest areas. On the other hand, use of household fuels in the urban and peri-urban areas is mixed between kerosene, electricity and fuelwood with 80% of the latter being purchased.

Table 2.4 Zimbabwe’s energy supply and consumption situation in 1997

Natural forests and woodlands are the major source of fuelwood for rural and low income urban households. In urban areas, most of the wood sold by vendors is from indigenous woodlands that are within 100km of the urban centre. Experiences with fuel substitution in the country have been mixed. The rising costs of electricity and kerosene in urban areas are forcing poor households to revert to and depend on fuelwood. On the other hand, the use of solar panels has been limited to institutions and middle and high income families, largely due to the high costs of purchasing and installing the solar panels and the cooking stoves and other end use equipment. Notwithstanding, solar energy holds promise if ways of lowering the cost of the solar systems are found. Solar systems are particularly suitable for powering solar lamps, refrigerators, radios and televisions. With respect to coal, there are currently some technological limitations to its use as a household fuel as it is generally not user friendly and not readily available in rural areas. About 45% of the country’s electricity is imported and 84% of urban households have access to this energy source compared to only 7% in the rural areas. Because a significant proportion of the electricity is imported, it is expensive and beyond the reach of most poor households. The same situation applies to petroleum fuels which are also imported. Given the current foreign currency shortage and the devaluation of the local currency, the cost of these energy sources is likely to rise further and hence became more inaccessible to the poor. The latter are then forced to increase their dependence on fuelwood.

The foregoing increasing dependence on fuelwood is contributing to increased deforestation. It is estimated that the country’s natural forests and woodlands are being depleted at a rate of 0.6% per annum due to agricultural expansion, overgrazing, forest fires, over exploitation of timber and the cutting of trees for wood fuels and construction. However, afforestation efforts aimed at improving fuelwood supply have had minimal impact hence natural woodlands have remained the major fuelwood source. This has led to the emphasis on woodland management as a strategy to increase woody biomass in recent years. However, this has had limited success due to lack of clarity on land use policies, insecurity of tenure, rapid population growth, conflicting stakeholder interests and inadequate silvicultural information. As these issues are being addressed, there is need to intensify research to develop appropriate technologies in the use of alternative fuels such as coal and solar energy.

2.5.1 Infrastructural developments

As is the case in other developing countries, Zimbabwe continues to prioritise infrastructure development for economic growth than biodiversity conservation per se. Consequently, the rapid population growth and the related urbanisation is exerting pressure on habitats and eco-systems surrounding cities, towns and rural service centres through the provision of infrastructural services such as houses, factories and roads. This is confounded by the drive to attract foreign investment with tourism, agriculture and mining being the most lucrative sectors. Such investments result in infrastructural developments that can crowd out various biological species from their habitats. For example, unless developments in the Victoria Falls area are controlled, they could destroy the ecosystem on which the very existence of the tourism industry depends. As a way of minimising the adverse effects of infrastructural development on the environment, government has instituted an Environmental Impact Assessment policy. Under this policy, projects with potentially adverse environmental effects are prescribed, making them subject to environmental audits.

2.5.2 Technological changes

Although forestry research in Zimbabwe has been evolving since the 1930s, formal research only started in 1948. Early work focused on indigenous forests in the demarcated areas of the western part of the country which consists of commercial timber species on the fragile Kalahari sands. The impetus for the research was the need to sustainably manage and utilise the valuable tree species in particular and to conserve the fragile ecosystem in general.

As the demand for timber increased, considerable pressure was placed on the slow growing indigenous tree species resulting in the need for research on fast growing exotic tree species for plantation development. This led to the establishment, in the 1960s and 1970s, of a series of forest stations in the eastern part of the country and the sourcing, evaluation and subsequent improvement of pine and eucalyptus germplasm for production under Zimbabwean climatic and edaphic conditions. Such research has had a significant impact on plantation forestry development in the country and, through sales of high quality seed abroad. For example, during the 1930s and 1940s, eucalypts produced an annual timber increment of 12m³/ha compared to 0.5m³ from indigenous woodlands. However, due to research and development efforts, these figures now average 25m³/ha and 0.9m³, respectively.

A number of organisations are involved in forest and forest related research in Zimbabwe. For example, the Forestry Commission initiated an exotic plantation tree improvement programme in 1958. This programme reduced the rotation age of pines from 33 to 25 years and significantly increased stem form. These achievements have increased the productivity of industrial pine plantations both locally and internationally. Similar work is now being extended to indigenous trees especially fruit trees that have considerable commercial value (e.g. Uapaca and Zizyphus) which have hitherto been neglected. Other tree related research being conducted by various local institutions includes the ecology and management of indigenous trees, screening of multipurpose-purpose tree species for agroforestry systems, forest resource evaluations and the development forest resource sharing models between state authorities and communities living "on the edge" of gazetted forests.

Efforts to encourage tree planting in communal areas for uses such as fuel wood and fruit supply have had some impact on the country’s regreening efforts. For example, the Forestry Commission has been implementing the rural afforestation programme since 1983. Seedling production was identified as a key activity during the firs t phase of the programme and resulted in the establishment of 78 centralised nurseries of eucalyptus seedlings which were then distributed and sold to interested farmers, communities, schools and local authorities. However, the concept of "centralised nurseries" proved expensive and the nurseries were handed over to interested local groups and individuals in the second phase of the programme. Local communities were then asked to establish their own "satellite nurseries" in which they would raise seedlings of their choice. This resulted in the diversification of the seedling mix from eucalyptus alone to include fruit and indigenous tree species. Such efforts have helped to increase the woody vegetation cover in the country.

There is considerable potential of using biotechnology in forestry development. For example, micro-propagation techniques which facilitate the rapid multiplication of planting material can help alleviate the problem of limited availability of tree seedlings. Micro propagation of orchids and other woodland products such as mushrooms is being carried out at Africa University in response to a survey that showed a decline in the biodiversity of traditional mushrooms in line with decreases in symbiotic indigenous forest tree species. The remaining local mushroom varieties are being collected and propagated using water hyacinth, maize cobs and other local compounds as substrates.