HON. C. HLATYWAYOasked the Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife to inform the House what plans the Ministry is putting in place to address the deforestation of timber trees in Chipinge, Chimanimani areas.
THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE AND WILDLIFE (HON. DR. NYONI): Mr. Speaker Sir, indeed deforestation of our timber resources is a serious issue which needs to be addressed. The country’s economy relies heavily on natural resources to generate employment, income and foreign exchange. The forestry sector which largely consist of exotic plantations and commercial indigenous timber contributes approximately 3% to the GDP.
Approximately 40% or 15 624 000 ha of Zimbabwe’s land area is covered by forests. Of this, 5. 1% is classified as primary forest, which is the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest. Zimbabwe currently has approximately 100 000 ha of planted or exotic forests. The major players in the industry include Allied Timbers, Border Timbers, Wattle Company, Hunyani Forests and Mutare Board and Paper Mills. The exotic plantation forestry industry contributes most of the 3% that the forestry sector contributes to the GDP.
However, Zimbabwe has been facing significant challenges in managing its timber and forestry resources, including wildfires, land invasions and encroachment, brain drain, baboon damage, conflicting national legislation, capitalisation, siltation in rivers and destruction of forest business. As a result, the area under forest has rapidly declined, which will impact the future supply of timber. If the challenges currently affecting the sector are not addressed, Zimbabwe is likely to become a net importer of timber.
The local resource alone will not be able to meet the current demand for such timber, which means the situation will definitely worsen in the future. Although there is an Instrument (S. I. 116 of 2000) that bans the export of indigenous timber, it has not been effective in addressing poaching, overharvesting and smuggling.
Apart from commercial timber, which is limited to one geological area, the country’s indigenous forest and woodlands provide a diverse range of products including fuel wood, artisan crafts, fodder, fruits, honey, mushrooms, insects, bark for rope, medicines, leaf litter and gum. These forests also provide important services such as watershed conservation, carbon fixation, windbreaks, shade, soil stability and wildlife habitat.
The indigenous forests in Western Zimbabwe are crucial for environmental protection. Due to their significance in terms of environmental conservation and commercial timber exploitation, 800 000 ha of these forests were designated in the 1970s, while another 700 000 ha are being managed as communal forestland.
Mr. Speaker Sir, my Ministry is putting in place measures to ensure we reverse this loss of both viable land for timber as well as the timber itself. We are engaging beneficiaries of land reform who were given plantation land and are now converting it to other uses. Our intention is to have those who were allocated plantation land to continue with trees as a viable form of land use. We are glad that the current growth in the construction sector has allowed farmers to see value in timber plantations as viable business options. We are also engaging the Ministry of Lands to ensure that we deal with the issue of illegal settlers who in most cases are responsible for the bulk of degradation taking place in our forest areas. Over and above this, we have embarked on a tree planting drive and creation of legacy forests. We are supporting the Presidential horticultural programme and we have received support from the First Lady who has been instrumental in spearheading a culture of tree planting across the country.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the above actions coupled with monitoring and law enforcement by the Forestry Commission, should be able to reduce the rate of forest loss in the country. However, to effectively manage our forest resources, we need a well-resourced and capacitated Forestry Commission. The institution is in dire straits due to funding challenges which are not entirely of its own making but a policy decision issue. In January 2016, as part of austerity measures, the Treasury discontinued its employment grant to the Forestry Commission.
This grant had been a long-standing pledge to the FC, made as a conciliatory gesture after one of the two major revenue streams of the Forestry Commission, Allied Timbers was privatised and registered with the Government of Zimbabwe as the shareholder. To sustain the institution, Treasury decided to continue providing salary grants while funding operations with proceeds from own funds, including Ngamo Safaris, a strategic business unit.
However, Mr. Speaker Sir, the Forestry Commission has been facing several distressing challenges since 2016. Revenue generation has significantly declined over the past decade. In 2015, the Government brought in a levy for tobacco farmers. The idea was to include the sector within the country’s afforestation drive. The levy was reintroduced at a rate of USD0. 015 per dollar of the selling price, with the revenue generated ring-fenced to finance re-forestation activities. The Forestry Commission which was approved to be the recipient of this fund has only received ZWL162 million in 2019 and 2020. This has crippled the organisation which had advanced own funds in anticipation of the release of the tobacco levy.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I therefore, call upon Parliament and Treasury to ensure that the institution is supported. We cannot renege from our responsibility of financing forestry in Zimbabwe. I thank you.
