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Agriculture Reporter
Zimbabwe is losing about 330 000 hectares of natural forests and woodlands every year, a rate that threatens the environment.
This was revealed at a stakeholders’ workshop on Participatory Forestry Management (PFM) earlier this week.Experts in forestry and environmental management raised concern that if the cutting down of trees continues at the current rate, in two to three years, there would no forests left.

Officiating at the workshop, Forestry Commission general manager Mr Darlington Duwa said major drivers of deforestation include agricultural expansion, commercialisation of firewood, veld fires, brick-moulding and tobacco  curing.

“Land use change trends between 1992 and 2008 show that major land use change beneficiaries were agricultural expansion and infrastructural development,” he said. Mr Duwa said forests in Zimbabwe were shared by many stakeholders.

“The bulk of the forests are in the custody of the local people who, through their leadership, devise methods to conserve trees and other natural resources in the area,” he said.

Mr Duwa said the commission had put in place plans to reduce the cutting own of trees by involving locals in the protection and management of forests.

“Village heads and traditional leaders play a pivotal role in the conservation of forests.  Their traditional norms and values have enabled the protection of natural resources in their areas for decades,” he said.