Land reform alleviating poverty: President
Thursday, 22 September 2011 02:00
From Morris Mkwate in New York
ZIMBABWE has moved closer to alleviating poverty in different parts of the
country following the successful
implementation of the land reform programme, President Mugabe has said.
Addressing delegates to the High-Level Meeting on Desertification, Land
Degradation and Drought in the Context of Sustainable Development and
Poverty Eradication at the United Nations headquarters here on Tuesday,
President Mugabe said more than 213 000 households were resettled under the
historic programme.
He said the land reform programme resolved “excessive land use pressures”
that resulted in land degradation and desertification.
“I am happy my Government has managed to fully implement one of the
prioritised areas on poverty alleviation through the historic land reform
programme, which has decongested the rural areas which were characterised by
excessive land use pressures that caused land degradation and
desertification,” he said.
“The historic programme was aimed at, among its goals, poverty alleviation,
equitable distribution of land, income generation and environmental
restoration of the decongested land. A total of 213 656 households were
resettled on 14, 9 million hectares of land.”
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, said Government was concerned by the impact of
desertification, land degradation and droughts on socio-economic
development.
He said although authorities have not invested in mitigation strategies
owing to several reasons, focus remained on combating these problems in
order to eradicate poverty.
“. . . Drought, land degradation and desertification compromise the social,
economic and environmental pillars of sustainable development. It is,
therefore, important that we proclaim zero net land degradation and adopt
effective land reclamation programmes. Let’s green our land for food
production and adaptation to climate change.
“My Government has since put in place a National Action Plan for
desertification control, land degradation, mitigation and adaptation. When
formulating the National Action Plan, Zimbabwe prioritised areas of
intervention including traditional energy sources, water resources
management, public awareness and capacity-building, soil conservation and
land tenure systems.
“. . . My Government is also implementing initiatives in the driest regions
of the country through national programmes such as the ‘Million Tree’
campaign, in which five million trees were planted last year alone around
the country in order to reduce erosion rates, to rehabilitate, reclaim and
restore degraded land.”
The President added that Zimbabwe signed the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification to monitor land degradation and was working with
various stakeholders to combat desertification through different
interventions such as aforestation and reforestation.
He said the country also participates in regional wildlife and natural
resources conservation programmes. Among such initiatives are Transfrontier
conservation with Mozambique and South Africa; Zambia andMozambique as well
as Botswana and Namibia.
“Under the auspices of the African Union, environmental monitoring systems
in individual countries, including Zimbabwe, are tracking changes in
biodiversity due to uncontrolled fires and droughts.
“In the 1980s, my Government embarked on community based natural resources
management programmes through a home-grown initiative called Community Area
Management for Indigenous Resources, which has spread throughout the country
and also copied in the Sadc region.
“The CAMPFIRE programme champions the sustainable utilisation of forest
resources and wildlife instead of excessively relying on agriculture,
particularly in marginal areas that are not viable for cultivation. Through
hunting trophies, eco-tourism and sale of wildlife products in these areas,
communities lead sustainable livelihoods in the face of desertification and
high incidents of drought.”
Tuesday’s gathering, which drew heads of state and other key stakeholders,
was among the high-level meetings that preceded today’s official opening of
the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly.
The meetings sought to discuss critical issues affecting the world, among
them food and nutrition as well as poverty alleviation. The interface on
desertification, land degradation and drought ran concurrently with the
High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases, which was yesterday
expected to formulate a global strategy on dealing with the diseases.
Zimbabwe is located in Sub-Saharan Africa where between 60 and 70 percent of
the population lives in rural areas and primarily depends on agriculture.
Seventy-eight percent of land degradation occurs in the region.