The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
THE Bvumba area is revered as a distinct and unique dense indigenous rain forest, with narrow pathways winding through it.
In the thick forests, one has a chance to view rare species of birds and animals.
The Bvumba Mountains form an important link in the chain of highlands along the eastern border with Mozambique.
The highlands extend from Nyanga in the north to Chipinge in the south — with the Bvumba at the centre.
But despite its spectacular cliffs, wood and grasslands, the rain forest overlooking the Burma Valley is under serious threat and needs to be extricated from ongoing illegal deforestation, land degradation and fauna poaching, among other unabated environmental carnages.
It now faces a lot of environmental problems through climate change, deforestation, land degradation, air pollution, waste disposal and water pollution.
This is affecting the people and the animals within its vicinity.
Over the last few years, the exploitation of the rain forest and degradation of the environment have gone up at an alarming rate.
As a result of these actions, natural calamities have been striking the forest more often in the form of flash floods, earthquakes, cyclones and landslides.
Deforestation has caused depletion of valuable flora, which ultimately affects the forest ecosystem and its water sources, among others.
If we do not protect such beautiful landscapes, our natural resources will be destroyed gradually.
This is why the formation of the Friends of the Vumba Trust (FOVT) could not have come at a better time.
FOVT’s aim is to preserve such unique natural resources for the future generations.
The community-based Trust is utilising conservation and education as stepping stones towards a future where humans co-exist in harmony with the fauna and flora.
This becomes more ideal when considering that the mountains are like stepping stones in a “sea” of savanna and lowland woodlands.
Because of their isolation, the montane habitats support many vertebrate and invertebrate species that have restricted ranges, or are endemic to particular mountain ranges.
For this reason alone, conservation of biodiversity along the mountain chain is of primary importance.
If the habitats in one section of the chain are destroyed or greatly modified, the long term survival of associated species will be limited as the opportunities for gene flow between the isolated patches become reduced.
Given that the mountains are also the sources of rivers feeding lower lying areas, any destruction of the montane habitats will also have a major impact in the water quality and availability to communities living downstream.
FOVT is a local group that works with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, National Parks, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) and local communities to protect this international gem that they call home.
They provide a fauna and flora protection unit and education programmes, including work with eco-clubs in local schools.
Its community based activities include fire protection education and fighting; rabies education awareness, control and vaccinations in conjunction with Mutare SPCA; regular clean-ups, wildlife protection activities like lion tracking and protection, python removal and relocation, as well as hippo tracking and protection in Burma Valley dams.
FOVT chairperson, Ms Susan Ingram said there is lack of resources for environmental education purposes and the organisation raises its funds through memberships, donations, as well as regular and private guided walks.
This Saturday (tomorrow), FOVT is hosting its annual Vumba Fair at Tony’s Coffee Shop in the Vumba.
Adults will pay US$5, while students and pensioners will pay US$2, with proceeds being channelled towards environmental conservation.
Central to the FOVT initiative are the Vumba Botanical Gardens and their two forest reserves — one in the Botanical Gardens and the other in the Bunga Forest.
The annual fund raising event has grown to become one of Manicaland’s premier fairs since it is all about family, fun, quality and variety.
Ms Ingram said their main aim is to enable a proactive and reactive fauna and flora protection unit as the foundation of preserving the environment.
She said the Vumba forests are being threatened by felling of trees and clearing for agriculture land with little regard to the critical role they play in trapping rainwater, preventing soil erosion, flooding and landslides.
Ms Ingram said the forests are also being threatened by the invasion of alien plants such as the ginger lily which beat the indigenous plants in competing for space and nutrients.
The ginger lily is not grazed by animals and does not have any natural controlling factors.
The grasslands are also threatened with overgrazing by cattle and invasion by trees such as blackwood, wattle, eucalyptus and pine, which also have no natural predators and controlling factors.
As a result, the trees are capable of changing an open grassland into a dense thicket within a few years.
This change has an impact on the soils and the grassland flora and fauna.
Ms Ingram said frequent veld fires are also damaging grassroots, thereby exposing the soil and stimulating the germination of blackwood and wattle.
“Environment challenges experienced in the Vumba are manifold, including illegal monkey, bushbuck, blue duiker and common duiker, wild pig and bird poaching perpetrated mostly with snares, homemade guns and dogs,” she said.
Illegal wood harvesting is also a huge challenge.
“Endangered animals or reptiles species, as well as indigenous trees are under threat of extermination by illegal squatters and uncontrolled fires,” she said.
Ms Ingram said stray cattle are also a menace in the area.
“Dog hunters masquerade as cattle herders and are wreaking havoc. Ineffective policing and the slow turning of the wheels of justice in prosecuting the suspects make it worse. Suspected criminals are ineffectively fined and released and we now have people trespassing from Mozambique to harvest indigenous Msasa trees and snaring animals. They are just set free,” she said.
Ms Ingram said they have three trained scouts who do daily patrols for illegal snares and wildlife hunting, logging or forest plant harvesting.
“They execute extended covert forest patrols every month together with armed rangers from ZimParks and arrest offenders. They submit information gathered during these patrols to the relevant stakeholders and educate the community on how to protect the environment,” she said.
An education committee was set up to focus on supporting an educationist, Mr Peter Magosvongwe, through Eco Clubs in Vumba and Burma Valley schools.
Besides the teach-the-teacher programme, Mr Magosvongwe also conducts school education outings and connects with environmental education organisations in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
These organisations supply educational material and facilitate citizen research programmes.
