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Sydney Kawadza Mashonaland West Bureau Chief
Government will on National Tree Planting Day this year facilitate the planting of 1 000 indigenous and exotic trees at Chitindiva Primary School in Hurungwe District to encourage environment conservation in the area, a senior Government official has revealed.

Addressing delegates and villagers attending the National Fire Launch at the school in Ward 8 of the Hurungwe Rural District Council on Thursday last week, Secretary for Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Mr Munesu Munodawafa said it was important to grow trees which were beneficial to human beings.

“We have a programme in our department where we plant trees at all areas that we visit. Trees are important for the air that we breathe and they are also used even in medicines and for providing nutrition when we eat fruits,” he said.

“We were supposed to plant trees today, but let me assure you that we have not forgotten, so I am pledging that when the rains come and during the National Tree Planting Day we will come back and plant 1 000 trees at this school.”

Mr Munodawafa said the programme would also include an orchard which would have several fruit trees.
“We expect this programme to assist children who will have fruits for food while they also learn how to grow trees whose fruits would be sold to boost the coffers at the school,” he said.

Government annually commemorates National Tree Planting Day during the first week of December during which time President Mnangagwa leads the nation in planting a tree at a selected location.

Meanwhile, conservation programmes in Hurungwe District, which are being spearheaded by the Kariba Redd+ Project, continue to bear fruit for the rural communities.

The project runs across three provinces — Mashonaland West (Nyaminyami and Hurungwe districts), Matabeleland North (Binga District) and Mashonaland Central (Mbire District) — with focus on climate change initiatives to fight against deforestation and land degradation through various activities by human beings.

“The major scope is trying to zero in the issue of climate change which is a global phenomenon when it comes to issues of environment,” said Mr Munodawafa. “That is why you have seen us coming to donate various equipment that can be used in fire management which include knapsacks sprayers, fire beaters, slashers and even sickles.”

The project has also see the establishment and training of 12 firefighting committees in Hurungwe District with members graduating and receiving certificates during the national fire season launch.

“We do this across the four districts that we are running,” said Mr Munodawafa. “We have actually assisted by training and capacitating the community on how they can actually avoid issues of deforestation and land degradation.”

The Kariba Red+ Project is the only company in Zimbabwe which is successfully trading carbon credits where communities protecting their trees benefit through such projects.