Zuva injects $200 000 in tree planting initiative

DIVERSIFIED energy group Zuva Petroleum has injected in excess of $200 000 in a tree-planting initiative targeting to grow a million plants by 2020.

BY STAFF REPORTER

The initiative will see the energy group partnering schools and farming communities in a series of tree-planting competitions, a move management says is aimed at inculcating a “green consciousness” in young people.

Speaking during the launch, Zuva chief executive officer Bethwell Gumbo said: “The competition will see us working with some selected schools here present as a launch pad for our national tree-planting programme.

“We are not only giving seedlings to schools, (but) a lot of schools will walk away with valuable prizes, including the supply of LPG [liquid petroleum gas], LPG accessories and installations. The goal is to improve the livelihoods of our society, aiming at middle-income by 2030.”

Officially launching the programme, Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Prisca Mupfumira said the Forestry Commission was targeting to plant 15 million trees annually to reverse the damage caused by deforestation, which is destroying 330 000 hectares per annum.

Mupfumira said the nation needed to come to terms with the sad reality that the environment was being damaged at a fast pace.

“It (Forestry Commission) cannot fight this deforestation war alone, which runs short of being declared a state of national disaster. There has been a call for the corporate world to, through various initiatives, assist in tree planting and other forest conservation activities,” she said.

“This is where partnership arrangements with good corporate citizens in the likes of Zuva come in handy.”