Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
As the world pushes towards achieving a green economy and reducing effects of climate change, challenges lay in ambush to that agenda.
The major task is therefore to turn those challenges into solutions.

Chief among the challenges is the fact that people are expected to forego their normal routines or ‘way of living’ especially among sub-Saharan Africans.

Zimbabwe is an agrarian nation and there is nothing new in cutting down trees for farming purposes. Cutting down of trees for use as fuel in curing tobacco is normal.

Zimbabwe also relies on mining and there is nothing amiss in destroying vegetation in pursuit of the natural resources that contribute immensely to the national Gross Domestic Product.

Recently, rains pounded the country and in every farmer’s mind was the use of fertilizers as much focus was on the ultimate price; that of a bumper harvest that the country is on its way to achieve.

It is high time, in line with the National Development Strategy 1, every Zimbabwean starts embracing an environment-friendly way of living as we need to focus on how we can reduce climate change effects and achieve a green economy.

Companies are slowly embracing the use of solar energy, farmers should also start embracing use of organic fertilizers, miners should think outside the box and look for ways of substituting mercury among other measures.

The Midlands Province, the heart of mining and farming activities in the country, is beginning to embrace such ways, and turning problems into solutions.

Kwekwe City Council is formulating ways of turning waste into energy, working closely with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

If successful, it will become the first local authority in the country to do that and it is in line with the Government’s call for local authorities to include climate change in their plans.

The Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy is situated right in the heart of the province and of late there have been conflicts between the conservancy’s authorities and farmers who are settling themselves within the conservancy.

Poaching of the rhino and other wildlife, cutting down of trees for farming and domestic use is the order of the day in the conservancy all pointing to disaster.

Mining activities have also come to worsen the situation as chrome and mining activities leave behind unclaimed galleys.

Acting Chairperson of the conservancy Mr Ben Manyunyure said they were aware of climate change effects and have embarked on a reforestation drive which is targeting the whole 60 000 acres.

“We are very much aware of the effects of climate change and we have embarked on a drive to plant trees as a way of preventing effects of climate change. We have also engaged local miners so that we can assist each other reclaiming the pits that were left open by miners. We are also engaging the community time and again and raising awareness on the importance of animals,” he said.

Director of climate change management in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Mr Washington Zhakata believes that it is never going to be easy to address climate change issues as they were day-to-day issues.

“The solutions that the country is driving at in addressing the issues of climate change are going to be very difficult to implement especially on development because the issues of energy are issues of survival. People need energy to survive and those are the same issues we need to be addressing. We are saying people should not cut down trees but at the same time, people need those same trees for survival so it’s never easy,” he said.

Mr Zhakata said some countries were advocating for a ban of Zimbabwean tobacco as a way of preventing deforestation and adding alternative energy sources should be devised as a matter of urgency.

“There are some countries that are saying Zimbabwean tobacco should not be sold because we cut down a lot of trees when treating it. These are some issues that we should have addressed urgently as a country,” he said.

“As you may be aware, a motion has already been moved to ban the use of coal and in some countries, coal has since been banned. As a country we need to pour resources towards alternative forms of energy like the Batoka Hydroelectric Gorge and the Devil gorge among other potential areas for electricity generation,” said Mr Zhakata.

A green jobs assessment model developed by International Labour Organisation, UN Development Programme’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Support Programme has been supporting Zimbabwe among other countries to quantify how climate and green economy policies would affect job creation, including for women and youth, income distribution, skills development and economic growth in their context.

The model discovered that in Zimbabwe, of the dozen climate investments and policy scenarios modelled – covering energy, industrial processes, agriculture and forestry – investments in conservation agriculture created up to 30 000 jobs for every million US dollars invested. This number stands in high contrast to only 100 jobs created for each million invested in a hydro dam and 25 in commercial solar.

University of Zimbabwe lecturer and environmentalist Mr Tawanda Collins Muzamwese believes, as Africa we have to bite the bullet if we are to achieve a green economy.

“We may have to bite the bullet if we are to achieve a green economy. We have made significant progress as some countries on a path towards a green economy. Like democracy, countries attain the green economy differently,” he said.

He said adoption of alternative energy sources like the use of solar energy, use of organic fertilizers among others will see Africa through.
Governments, he said, need to formulate polices that support a green economy.

“Governments need to come up with new policies which initiate a green economy that support use of renewable energy, integrated waste management as a strategy,” he said.

Mr Muzamwese said if we fail to manage chemicals, then we are headed for disaster.

There is therefore a need for a holistic approach that will see Zimbabweans changing their way of living and embrace it, bite the bullet if need be, so that we avoid drought, poverty and unemployment in the near future.