The Sunday News
Hazel Marimbiza
WHILE everyone is busy hustling to feed their families with little focus on the environment around them, Mr Never Bonde (44)’s attention is fixed on restoring the heavily disturbed ecological balance through planting trees for medicinal use and for other natural purposes.
He says he is moved by how people suffer from various diseases in most cases not knowing that the cure lies around them in the form of herbs and has motivated him into a green crusader over the years. Mr Bonde has taken it upon himself to help restore people’s health while also caring for the environment by planting more than 130 000 different species of herbal trees. His passion for a green life began with his visit to Central and East Africa in 2010 which opened his eyes.
“My visits to Ethiopia and Kenya led me to grow the indigenous and medicinal trees. It’s rare to come across a sick person in Kenya. The people there are strong compared to us because they constantly eat herbs,” he said.
Since his East African voyage, he has been a man on a mission.
“When I came back home, I started growing herb trees. So far, I have grown more than 130 000 herb trees. I also grow indigenous trees. My target is to reach a million trees by 2030,” he said.
Mr Bonde outlined some of the health benefits of the herbs he is growing.
“Some of the herb trees that I grow cure various diseases such as cancer, headaches, period pains, and women suffering from long periods,” he said.
After growing the trees, Mr Bonde takes it upon himself to empower communities by donating and explaining the importance of growing indigenous and herb trees. Mr Bonde’s personal contribution towards re-greening the country has seen him grow trees in different parts of the country which include Chimanimani, Chipinge, Filabusi and Inyanga. Besides being passionate about communities’ health, Mr Bonde also grows trees in order to help preserve the country’s drylands.
According to research, a majority of people depend on forests and other wooded lands, grasslands and trees on farms for their livelihoods and to meet basic needs for food, medicines, wood energy and non-wood forest products.
Trees tend to be an integral part of traditional food systems in drylands, because crops and livestock thrive in their presence. Their leaves and fruits are sources of food for people and fodder for animals.
Research further indicates that, trees contribute to soil fertility by sucking carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in soils and their bodies. Their roots are said to channel rainwater deep underground, letting it recharge aquifers instead of gathering into a flood. They protect against droughts by creating a micro-climate that allows the crop’s stomata — the breathing holes on the surface of every leaf — to stay open and photosynthesis to continue.
Considering the advantages of having trees in drylands, most farmers who are in arid regions particularly in rural areas have benefited a lot from Mr Bonde’s tree growing campaigns.
“For instance, those who grow drought-resistant crops like millet have seen their yields shooting up since they have managed the regeneration of trees,” said Mr Bonde.
According to researchers, it’s not just about the nutrients that the trees can find deep underground and offer to the hungry crops via their leaf fall.
“It is also the distributed shade that allows crops to keep growing during the hottest hours of the day, and the humidity that stays in those fields is longer than in those bereft of trees. Also, the breaks formed keep the soils from being blown or washed away by wind or rain,” said a researcher, Mr Amos Nkiwane.
Development organisations like World Vision, have long understood how important trees are to dryland agriculture after most of the trees were cut down for cash during the famines of the 1970s, and even as rainfall returned to normal, agricultural production in the freshly treeless fields did not recover.
With so much evidence pointing to the importance of trees, it’s sad to note that more than 30 million acres of forests and woodlands are lost every year due to deforestation; causing a massive loss of income to poor people living in drylands who depend on the forests to survive.
Judging from the rate at which Zimbabwe is losing its forest cover, the country is in desperate need of citizens that are in sync with environmental issues like Mr Bonde, who understands the importance of growing trees more than they relish the opportunity to cut them down.
Over the years environmental experts have outlined the costs of cutting down trees. Environment expert, Mr Lazarus Zhou said cutting trees was not recommended as it has negative consequences.
“When trees are cut, ecosystems become vulnerable to water shortage, drought, desertification, land-use change and degradation and climate change impacts, with dangerous implications of food security, livelihood and wellbeing of their populations, “said Mr Zhou.
Urgent action is needed to improve the management and restoration of drylands. Such action requires a comprehensive understanding of the complexity, status and roles of drylands, as well as context-specific approaches tailored to the unique conditions of drylands.
Mr Zhou said regular monitoring of changes in dryland forests, tree cover and land use is vital to evaluate the impact of climate change and human activities, the results of adaptation and mitigation measures and progress towards meeting regional targets for land degradation neutrality.
He added that drylands should attract the same level of interest and investment as other ecosystems, such as humid tropical forests.
“Little is known about tree cover and land use in drylands, even though recent studies have indicated the need to restore drylands to cope with the effects of drought, desertification, land degradation and climate change,” said Mr Zhou.
In order to preserve trees and restore drylands, the United Nations recently called for greater action and investment in the assessment, monitoring, sustainable management and restoration of drylands.
Zimbabwe’s Forestry Commission has reminded citizens, particularly farmers in drylands to protect trees given that the country is now in the fire season.
“What we are telling farmers is we are now in the fire season and we want to tell the farmers to look after the trees and avoid starting fires in forests because it’s of no use to plant a tree in the same hole every year,” said the Forestry Commission general manager Mr Abednico Marufu.
He further encouraged traditional leaders in dryland areas, councillors, politicians and everyone to be jealous about the trees that were there because they were very essential.
Meanwhile, he highlighted that this year they want to double their tree-growing initiative so that they can replace all the trees which have been destroyed over the years. It’s crucial to understand that trees are a link between the past, present and future. With exponential decrease in forest cover worldwide, the only way to save trees is by consciously acting towards environment conservation.
