Zimbabwe is still fairly wooded with 66 percent of the country's land area being under various woodland types (MMET, 1998). Only 27 percent is under cultivation and the remainder being under other forms such as grasslands, exotic plantations and settlements. The country has two major phyto-regions, namely Flora Zambesiaca and the Afromontane. The former comprises five major woodland types, namely the miombo, mopane, teak, acacia and Terminalia-Combretum woodlands. These woodland types are believed to contain up to 8 500 species with 4 600 being endemic. The major genera constituting the endemic species include Bolusanthus, Cleistochlamys, Colophospermum, Diphorhynchus, Pseudolachrostylis and Viridivia. Scattered along the country's eastern border, are some montane vegetation types (Afromontane phyto-region) that are interspersed with exotic plantations of pines, gums and wattles.
Most of the major woodland or vegetation types are socially or economically important in one way or another. They provide commercial timber mainly for furniture, local construction poles, fuelwood, fruits, livestock browse and fodder, medicines and shelter for other fauna and flora. Marunda (1996) presented a comprehensive paper on deforestation and conservation of forest ecosystems and resources in Zimbabwe.
