The ManicaPost
MUTARE is home to big timber industries that tap raw materials from the thick forests in the Eastern Highlands. Before the discovery of diamonds at Chiadzwa in Marange, the timber industry was the mainstay economic activity in the eastern border city that employed thousands in downstream industries.
Companies that quickly come to mind include the now defunct Mutare Board and Paper Mills, struggling Border Timbers, Mutare Board and Doors, Wattle Company, Allied Timbers and a litany of other small informal sector operations.
And during hey days when these companies were operating at full throttle, thousands were decently employed.
Things have not been rosy as they used to be and recent utterances that the forestry industry is in the intensive care unit make the situation more difficult to fathom.
Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, last week urged stakeholders in the industry to bring their act together and revive dying plantations.
He said the timber industry was in a depressing state, which if not rectified quickly, the once thick forests would turn into deserts.
Cde Kasukuwere said the Timber Producers Federation must educate its members to plant more trees instead of harvesting.
“Manicaland is the hub of the timber industry in the country, but the situation at hand is depressing.
“We need to up our act and ensure that the industry survives. The forests are no longer there. It is a painful sight and we have to be more committed to restore it.
“If we do not come together and find each other, there is no where we are going to win,” he said.
Some decades back, a drive through the plantations in the Eastern Highlands showed unbroken belts of thick forests, but today the highlands have been left open.
“Those operating saw mills are just cutting down trees without investing a cent to replace the ones they are harvesting.
The seemingly out of hand situation has also seen some illegal settlers who are allocating them land in the forests and embark on large scale land clearing.
On a national level, Zimbabwe has depleted its plantation reserves that were meant to take the country through to 2034 because those in the sector were not planting trees.
According to a report produced by the Timber Producers Federation the timber plantation hectarage has fallen from around 108 214 to 80 000 hectares since 2004 and this will definitely have a telling effect on downstream industries that use timber as raw material. Cde Kasukuwere said executives of companies dealing in forestry must ensure that they replant trees for the benefit of future generations.
He said the trees they will plant today might not necessarily benefit them when they mature in the next 20 years but they will be used by future generations in as much as we are harvesting trees that were planted long back by some people who have since passed on. Several factors have been blamed for the deteriorating situation in the industry and these include illegal settlers, mismanagement and an ineffective timber replanting exercise.
The TPF report said timber producers like MPBM, Allied Timbers Zimbabwe, Border Timbers Limited and Wattle Company were being greatly affected by illegal settlers on their plantations.
Apart from wantonly cutting down trees these illegal settlers have been blamed for causing veld fires that have a devastating effect on forestry.
ATZ group chief executive officer, Mr Joseph Kanyakanye, is on record saying illegal settlers were greatly to blame for the depletion of the country’s timber industry.
Cde Kasukuwere promised that Government will deal with the issue of illegal settlers since they were criminally occupying the plantations.
“We say no to illegal settlers. You cannot allocate yourself land in timber estates.
“If you are doing that you are a criminal and criminals are reported to the police, taken to the courts and jailed at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.”
These illegal settlers are causing uncontrolled veld fires as they try to clear land for farming.
