The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube
TO many, activities such as bird watching, nature walks or camping are a foreign activity which has no capacity to contribute meaningfully to the country’s economic development. It becomes even more foreign when one considers the prospect of visiting forests, with towering trees, shrubs and different types of species, which we only know from childhood fairy tale stories.
However, this in itself is a viable avenue known worldwide as eco-tourism — a form of tourism involving visiting fragile, pristine, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low-impact and often small-scale alternative to standard commercial (mass) tourism.
Talk of tourism in the country and all that comes to mind is the Victoria Falls, Matobo Hills and various game parks in the country; little or nothing is mentioned of various eco-tourism sites in the country that can be exploited to help aid the country’s economic revival bid.
One unique feature of this type of tourism is that its success hinges on the local community’s participation and when exploited can even develop these communities.
In other words, these naturally occurring forests when preserved are a source of income.
Globally, there is a growing enthusiasm for grassroots efforts to promote various forms of tourism. Local communities are trying to attract visitors interested in their cultural heritage and rich biodiversity.
During a recent visit to Chipinge’s Chirinda Forest, the need for the promotion and support of eco-tourism in the country’s rural communities, not only as an instrument for promoting sustainable resource management, but also to bring tourists to the backwaters of underdevelopment, was noted.
The Chirinda Forest Reserve covers about 950 hectares of primary evergreen forest on the slopes of Mount Selinda in South East Zimbabwe. It is one of the large protected forest areas in the country with a unique combination of tropical and subtropical vegetation species. Most impressive are the towering specimens of forest trees and also contains over 100 tree species, some of them rare or endemic.
Biodiversity expert, Dr Chipangura Chirara revealed that Chirinda Forest was one of the most unique eco-tourism sites in the country as due to the community’s participation, there were some rare species that could only be found at that forest.
“This is an example that eco-tourism and biodiversity can really work. People come from all over the world to this very forest to participate in various activities that include bird watching and further you can clearly see how the community works to preserve this forest because you find there are some rare species that are only found here.
“Chrysophyllum gorungosanum, Ficus chirindensis, and the famous “Big Tree” – Khaya anthotheca, Argomuellera macrophylla, Celtis mildbraedii, Strychnos mellodora and Strychnos mitis are among the rare species, which are only found in the Chirinda Forest or are very rare elsewhere in Zimbabwe. We also have a special toad called the Chirinda toad, which is found here alone in the whole world,” said Dr Chirara.
The big tree is believed to be 1 000 years old and stands almost 60 metres tall and is 16 metres in circumference at the base of its trunk.
Dr Chirara noted that eco-tourism was a branch of tourism that had been constantly overlooked despite the fact that a number of tourists especially from South Africa were travelling all the way to the remote parts of the country to do activities such as bird watching.
He said the best part of eco-tourism was that the local communities were heavily involved in the process of biodiversity, this mainly by conserving the various flora and fauna within their communities.
“Biodiversity basically means the differences in life and in Zimbabwe we have a number of biodiversity hotspots, these including the Chirinda forest, which is a moist rainforest with a number of species that are synonymous with the area and are only found here in the whole world an example being the Chirinda toad.
“These are some of the best parts of our beautiful nation which we really have to be proud of and jealously preserve. We have tourists who come to the country just for this; I personally believe that this is a field that really has to be exploited and have a bit more attention put towards marketing this one aspect of the country,” said Dr Chirara.
He, however, said the onus was not only on Government investing more in eco-tourism but the local communities also had to come in and help preserve such areas by reducing deforestation.
“There are a lot of areas in the country that have the potential of assisting in the development of our local communities linked with this issue of eco-tourism. For example, there is an issue of traditional knowledge. I can tell you that our people out there have a lot of traditional knowledge that if it lands on the right hands can be easily exploited.
“The country is in the process of signing and ratifying the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing, which stresses that traditional knowledge has to be protected and whenever information is passed from a community to a third party these benefits should filter down to the communities,” said Dr Chirara.
He noted that indigenous knowledge is an important part of the country’s heritage as there are some practices that are unique to certain areas and these practices if positively exploited could help boost the country’s economy.
“We have women who are into making mats and they use only natural resources that include the baobab tree’s bark and roots from other trees to create the dyes. This shows you that this could be a practice they got from their ancestors and it is such indigenous knowledge that is giving them economic livelihood,” said Dr Chirara.
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) education and communications manager Mr Steady Kangata echoed Dr Chirara’s sentiments, noting that it was time local communities adopted green development strategies to help maintain their areas.
“For us to really benefit from this eco-tourism the nation should have a shift of attitude and adopt green development. We must fight deforestation not this current trend, when someone gets a piece of land they would want to clear the area totally.
“I can tell you that according to our figures we are losing over 300 000 hectares due to deforestation, which by all means is too high,” said Mr Kangata.
He said EMA was educating people on the importance and prospects of biodiversity, where emphasis is put on accepting the differences in our flora and fauna.
“By conserving our naturally occurring habitat, it gives us as a country an advantage over other countries in terms of tourism as people will come from around the world just to view this.
“Right now we are saying at Chirinda we have species that are not only unique here but have been named after this forest and when you get to the area, you find the surrounding communities have customs hinged around conserving this forest,” said Mr Kangata.
As the country continues with the drive of marketing Zimbabwe as a good tourism destination, the time has come to diversify and consider taking the eco-tourism route which is only possible through conserving our naturally occurring forestry.
