LIVING and surviving on a sustainable ecologically supportive environment requires a concerted effort by communities countrywide. Communities need to conserve, and benefit from the natural resources found locally, for example, fertile soil, water, forestry and wildlife and this can always happen if the community is exposed to benefits of such natural resources through education, or community exchange programmes.

Communities, especially rural, can benefit a lot from these environmentally friendly and sustainable inputs or natural resources which are easily available, for example, manure to improve soil fertility, natural pesticides from indigenous plants, practice permanent agriculture — permaculture, which is the type that has organic crop growing principles, and agro-forestry.

Most rural communities enjoy vast land, which has trees and other natural features like rocks which form habitats of wild animals, especially small game.

Animals like squirrels, mongoose, hares and small antelope families like the duiker, and impala are sometimes spotted feeding on such patches of habitats.

In some cases, such patches of land which can form habitats for different species are rare to find, the land has been left bare due to negative environmental factors like drought and uncontrolled use of these natural resources by human beings, for example, unwarranted cutting down of trees which results in deforestation which in most cases leads to soil erosion.

Having realised the disastrous effects of such patches of land for human beings in terms of earning a livelihood, that is, the land has become infertile for crop production and communal livestock has run out of grazing areas or palatable and nutritious grasses or trees.

Despite such environmental challenges country wide, effort has been made by individuals and different organisations to encourage communities to use natural resources like soil, water and wildlife found within communities prudently.

Communities have been encouraged to use environmentally friendly, and sustainable resources for survival, for example, use of organic fertilisers like manure and compost which are very supportive to the ecosystem, that is, promotion of microbial activities, for example, nitrogen fixing bacteria since soil bacteria is the foundation of most agricultural activities.

In a concerted effort to ensure that communities grasp most of the environmental concepts, some communities have been given the opportunity to borrow pages from each other’s books regarding earning a living through sustainable agricultural activities, and promoting existence of wildlife which eventually benefits respective communities through programs like Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources(Campfire).

A recent exchange programme by 16 members from Chesayama community in Chimanimani District and Sizinda community in Hwange District gave community members the platform to cross pollinate ideas which also included sharing indigenous knowledge on how sustainable agricultural activities can be carried to benefit the environment, as well as improving the livelihood of community members.

The exchange programme was organised by two environmentally concerned organisations, that is, Participatory Land Use Management (POLUM) based in Harare but has spread its wings to other parts of the country and Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) which is based in Victoria Falls.

POLUM which has programmes benefiting communities in Chimanimani District and Kezi area in Matabeleland south, has various programmes in the stated communities which address effects of climate change, drought, biodiversity, reducing human and wildlife conflict, agro-based practices which are environmental friendly and promoting improvement of livestock through planned grazing system.

The two communities had the opportunity to make presentations on how they run individual and community environmentally friendly crop production, and livestock keeping programmes.  Sizinda community, as the hosting community had the opportunity to showcase its community Permaculture garden, individual crop and livestock projects which were interfaced by conservation concepts.

Due to environmental disturbances, most communities have been disturbed in terms of earning livelihood, and wildlife habitat has been destroyed hence the need for various stakeholders to assist such communities to revive, and educate communities on prudent use of natural resources.

Speaking on behalf of POLUM, the country director, Mrs Getrude Psuwurayi —Jabson, said, “as an organisation we always seek to address issues related food security, human and wildlife and desertification in communities.

We always organise, and run workshops for our target communities to address such issues, but, we have realised that such community exchange programmes benefit more. Indigenous knowledge sharing is one of the benefits.”

The sixteen participants from Chimanimani District are farmers from one of POLUM’s member’s operational area Participatory Organic Research Extension Trust (PORET), the two organisations facilitated and synchronised the programmes to be exchanged with Hwange District communities.

The occasion was also attended by Dr Paul Chinembiri, the Director Of Chinyika Community Development Trust which is a member of POLUM who described the event as an encouraged occasion

“This is a good exchange programme for communities and benefit of the environment. I wish such programmes be extended to other parts of the country, if possible by other environmentally concerned organisations.”

The same sentiments were echoed by the hosting stakeholder Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) programmes manager, Mr Alias Shoko who described the event as an ideal platform which gives different communities the opportunity to trade information, after observing how natural resources can be sustainably utilised for the benefit of communities.

ACHM runs community programs which promote conservation agriculture, planned grazing rotational programmes and rotational kraal shifting programme which improves soil fertility in Hwange District.

Community environment related exchange programmes should be used as platforms which reinforce what has been covered in respective community environment workshops which promote sustainable use of wildlife, and other natural resources in different communities countrywide.

Communities might be in different geographical positions of the country, have different climatic conditions, types of soil, experiences with wildlife and other natural resources, but, have a lot to share!
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Mahlabezulu Zulu is a conservationist who has worked for various wildlife research, and conservation organisations in Hwange National Parks, and Fuller Forestry in Victoria Falls.

He can be contacted on 00263(0)713269827/0776196171. Email [email protected] or [email protected]