The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MORE than 260 000 hectares of forests are being lost annually in Zimbabwe owing to deforestation, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Speaking during the Zimbabwe College of Forestry and the Forest Industries Training Centre joint graduation ceremony today, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Mangaliso Ndlovu bemoaned the continued destruction of forests.
“More than 260 000ha of forests are lost annually in Zimbabwe. This rate of destruction has to be arrested as a matter of urgency because it poses a serious threat to the global environmental health and to the well being of communities who are dependent on forests. Main causes of this deforestation include logging, fuel harvesting, unsustainable agricultural activities, mining, urbanization, timber production and forest fires,” he said.
A total of 35 students graduated with certificates and diplomas in forestry and wood technology.
