The Sunday News
Mollet Ndebele, Sunday News Reporter
GWANDA Rural District Council (RDC) will introduce licences that will be issued to individuals intending to harvest amacimbi under areas of its jurisdiction as a way of monetising the venture.
In an interview, chief executive officer Mr Ronnie Sibanda said this came after a realisation of how much amacimbi harvesters were also contributing to environmental degradation.
“People coming to collect mopane worms for the past years have been damaging the environment by cutting down mopane trees in order to access amacimbi resulting in massive deforestation. By introducing licences this will be a conservatory measure to the trees because if they continue acting in the same manner, we might not have these delicacies in the coming 10 years,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said the licences will also speak on issues to do with hygiene.
“People collecting amacimbi throw waste randomly. They throw litter everywhere and this does not only affect the environment but it also affects our livestock as cattle sometimes eat plastics,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said this year there has been a low number of people who have come to the district to harvest amacimbi.
“Gwanda is known as the hub of amacimbi but this year there were very few harvesters compared to the previous years because of low rainfall that also came late. We usually harvest these delicacies in early December but this time we started beginning of January with harvesters from other provinces as well. We are hoping that in April it will be better since they are two phases,” said Mr Sibanda.
Since the beginning of this hundreds of Bulawayo residents have also besieged Mophani area along the Bulawayo-Solusi Road on the outskirts of the city to harvest amacimbi. The amacimbi were discovered by villagers from Danstaal area in Umguza District. By last week people were still flocking to the areas although some indicated that the edible mopane worms were running out in the area.
