By Sharon Chimenya
GREEN value chains, which is a process of promoting environmentally friendly practices, crucial for sustainable landscape development can offer a transformative pathway for economic growth, a senior Government official said.
These value chains focus on enhancing the sustainability of the entire supply chain, incorporating environmentally friendly practices at every stage, from production to distribution and consumption.
The green value chains programme aims to motivate communities to engage in sustainable land and forest management practices; the viability of these initiatives hinges on their ability to generate income.
In a speech read on his behalf Masvingo Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Dr Addmore Pazvakavambwa, said during a green value chain markets and financing symposium that green enterprises were important as they drove innovation and employment creation.
“Green value chains offer a transformative pathway to addressing key drivers of land degradation while promotion sustainable economic growth, by investing in green sustainable practices across to processing and distribution. We can also create jobs, enhance bio-diversity, environmentally sustainable and build climate resilience in line with the targets set out in National Development Strategy 1,” he said.
“Green enterprises are essential in driving innovation and creating meaningful employment opportunities. They embody the spirit of sustainability that is crucial for our future which proves that economic prosperity and environmental strategy must go hand in hand.”
Land degradation was a critical challenge in Masvingo Province and the nation due to climate change, unsustainable farming practice, deforestation and over grazing.
“We are witnessing increased soil erosion, decline in soil fertility and loss of vegetation cover. This degradation affects our food security, water resources and ultimately the prosperity of our communities. If left unchecked, it would erode the livelihood of thousands.”
Dr Pazvakavambwa said access to funding and investment was therefore, essential for scaling successful green initiatives and urged stakeholders to come up with ways that can help bridge the financial gap.
Meanwhile, under the dryland sustainable landscape impact programme (DSL-IP) there is also a project called the Cross-sector Approach Supporting the Mainstreaming of Sustainable Forest and Management to Enhance Ecosystem for Improved Livelihoods in the Save and Runde Catchments of Zimbabwe, which is sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under its seventh operational cycle and is led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
In Zimbabwe, DSL-IP is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife through the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) as the executing entity and four implementing partners, namely, Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT), World Vision, Forestry Commission and Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
The programme’s primary goal is to foster a transformational shift towards sustainable and integrated management of multi-use dryland landscapes within the Miombo and Mopane ecoregions following a Land Degradation Neutrality approach.
In an interview, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Natural Resources Management Specialist, Barnabus Mawire, said they were also working on promoting assisted natural regeneration.
“In this landscape the main drivers to land degradation are fires, unsustainable land use practices and also climate change. As a project to respond to this, we are promoting integrated land use, planning which is participatory, which is bottom up. You can have land use plans but if they are top down, people don’t respect them and also people will have their own land use in their minds which they will use which may cause land degradation,” he said.
DSLP-IP national project co-ordinator, Precious Magwaza, said on forest management programmes they had identified over 70 000 hectares of woodlands that they were managing through community-based forest management committees.
She said they had set up 600 farmer schools with 25 farmers in each school.
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