The Forestry Project

I can't believe I haven't written about this until now. It has been on the back of my mind, but I didn't really have the time. So the forestry is the enviromental part of Dzikwa Trusts program. It is a piece of land they have leased from the City Council to plant trees that then can be sold after full grown while planting new ones. The idea is necessary in Zimbabwe, where deforestation is a big problem and people get illegally woods to heat their stoves. Besides wanting to provide the community with a sustainable land of woods for use and also for relaxing and teaching them and especially our children about environmental awareness, there is also the Agroforestry Project: It is based on the idea that we need trees, but the farmers also need fields for crops. That is why in Finland and also in Zimbabwe Agroforestry has developed. It pretty much means that we plant nitrogen-fixing trees(they gather nitrogen from the air and when their leaves fall they transfer it into the ground to improve the growth of other crops such as maize. The naturally growing tree in Zimbabwe is faidherbia also called the Evergreen tree. Not only is it a nitrogen-fixing plant, but its woods are very useful, one can eats it fruits and some natural healers swear on their power of healing. Wonder tree. All this theory amounts up to the fact that On the Forestry site there is a nursery, where seedlings are planted to grow into big trees of eucalyptus for wood as these trees seriously are very fast-growing(20m in three years) and among others evergreen tree, which are then planted on fields also on this land. To actually create awareness for the benefits of a agroforestry Dzikwa has provided 20 farmers with prepared and plowed land to plant their crops as long as they leave the planted trees grow peacefully and follow the instructions of our agroforestry experts Michek and Duncan. As workforce we have at the moment five students on attachment from Bindura University all tasked with looking after different areas of the Forestry and Mr. Makeakora, a self-taught environmentalist and the overseer of work on sight. When it comes to bigger actions, such as repoting 2000 plants Dzikwa children are of course expected to participate and 50 of them actually managed this job last Saturday. The big Clean up was also done on the Forestry side.

I have not been so involved in the Forestry as Simon, who has been cutting trees, which were planted on a sewage line, since many of my tasks have to be done at Dzikwa Center, yet on some of my Friday's I have come and participated with measuring parcels of land - that was rather fun and a good way to apply maths in real life - or filling little plastic bags with soil. I felt good to also contribute in this area of Dzikwa, since the project has totally convinced me and I believe it will also help with one of the most important tasks we have, create environmental awareness in the children, for example after the Litter Campaign I am hoping they will consider it more carefully before they leave more litter on the ground.