Mozambique: Poacher gets 30 years in prison after being found guilty of killing 42 lions
File photo / The Bvumba Mountains or Vumba Mountains straddle the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border, and are situated some 25 km south east of Mutare (ZIM). The Vumba rise to Castle Beacon at 1,911 metres, and are, together with the Chimanimani and Nyanga part of the Eastern Highlands of the Manicaland (Zim) and adjacent Manica (MOz) provinces. They are referred to as the "Mountains of the Mist" (Bvumba being the Shona word for "mist"), as so often the early morning starts with a mist which clears by mid-morning. Although lying mostly within Zimbabwe, the mountains extend north-eastward to Mount Vumba (or Monte Vumba) in Mozambique.
The future existence of Vumba tropical rainforest’s rare habitat — home to the dwarf chameleon, Simango monkey and blue duiker — is increasingly getting threatened due to high vegetation loss.
The forest’s pristine fauna and flora has been ravaged by illegal settlers and poachers.
While the firewood poachers and squatter settlements have caused significant damage to the environment, government’s haphazard relocation programmes have also dealt a blow, as displaced people clear the rainforest to create agricultural land.
The forest, in spite of all its fame, is not a gazetted forest, like Chirinda Forest, exposing it to exploitation by individuals, communities and companies.
Its Msasa woodlands and Montane forests are being cleared and are now retreating further into the misty mountains, limiting the freedom of the rare Simango monkey, while snares littering the forest floors threaten the uncommon little Blue Duiker and the unique dwarf chameleon, among other species.
The forest’s impressive catalogue of insects, birds and animal life is also under threat.
Vumba is key to both neighbouring Mozambique and Zimbabwe’s river systems, as some major water bodies have their sources in the mountains.
The famous Chikamba Dam in neighbouring Mozambique is supplied from the mountain.
The banana crop in Burma Valley is irrigated from rivers whose sources are in the mountain.
It is the source of Mupudzi River, which feeds the aptly named Mupudzi Dam, and goes further to supply Odzi and Save, boosting capacity to supply irrigation schemes dependent on the mighty transnational river.
And loss of vegetation in the Vumba Mountains threatens all this.
Vumba’s unique ecology can be a major attraction for ecotourism, which can offer the entire Eastern Highlands sustainable income, if kept pristine and natural.
Environment Africa’s country director, Barnabas Mawire, said he is at a loss for words on the wanton decimation, which he said was now common country wide.
“It’s very sad. We should be more kind to these life supporting systems,” he said.
Forestry Commission (FC) provincial manager Phillip Tomu told the Daily News that his organisation was worried that the damage was not going to be easily repaired.
“Its recovery is going to be a challenge. It’s different from the Miyombo (dry land forests). It’s a moist forest which doesn’t tolerate openings as it thrives on trapping moisture under its canopy,” Tomu said.
Locals say the introduction of tobacco farming by resettled farmers was another major threat to the area’s vegetation.
“Government was acting irresponsibly by allowing any form of agricultural activities in this region.
“How could they allow tobacco farming in this area?
“The whole country is going to suffer huge environmental losses because of the desire to make money through a few cigarettes,” a local government employee said on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation.
Tobacco farming is notorious for causing the decimation of the country’s forests.
FC reports blame tobacco farming for the loss of 20 percent of the country’s 350 000 hectare of forests annually.
Investigations by this publication also showed that a key stakeholder like FC was not represented in the lands committee that determines allocation of resettlement land.
This has previously seen resettled people disrupting timber plantations in Mutasa at Meikles Eucalyptus Estate and in Chimanimani at Tarka Forest, where a community was settled in the middle of a plantation.
In a previous interview, a local volunteer expressed gloom over efforts to preserve the Vumba Forest as its threat was tied to “basic survival scenarios”.
DB Blaauw, a volunteer consultant for Wildlife Environment Protection Unit, a project under the Vumba Green Fund, which is facilitated by Environment Africa and the Tikki Hywood Trust, said education alone was not enough.
“You get people who are seriously desperate for land… So even with education, it is about survival. That’s the problem,” Blaauw said, adding that animal and fish poaching are a critical source of protein for locals.
“Man is always the top predator but we are just trying to give the other guys a chance,” Blaauw said.
By Bernard Chiketo
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