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New board for Forestry Commission

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THE Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Saviour Kasukuwere last week announced the new Forestry Commission board challenging it to lead from the front in all efforts to protect and conserve the country’s natural resources.
The announcement comes ahead of the National Tree Planting Day which is held annually on December 6.
It also comes a time many illegal settlements are sprouting resulting in over 300 000 hectares of trees being lost annually.
Despite efforts by various forestry and other environmental stakeholders to ensure that there is a decrease in the hectares of trees lost, various land use practices such as infrastructure development and agriculture continue to take centre stage and compromise the existence of trees and forests.
Politicians have also been fingered in the issue as they are alleged to be illegally allocating land to unsuspecting people.
Announcing the board, Kasukuwere challenged it to quickly get a grasp of the problems facing the Forestry Commission and work hard to protect and conserve the environment.
“The board comes at a time when the forestry sector is facing challenges such as uncontrolled fires, poaching and illegal settlements in the gazetted forests,” he said.
“Forestry Commission is also facing challenges related to depressed revenue generation which impacts on the ability of the parastatal to carry out its mandate effectively.
“All these challenges require a visionary and competent board to give Forestry Commission the much needed strategic direction for the next three years.
“The Forestry Commission has a lot of forest resources and it is my expectation that these are protected, conserved and utilised sustainably in order to be a successful and profitable organisation.”
Minister Kasukuwere disclosed that the Forestry Commission recently developed a strategic plan which is expected to help in its operations.
“The Forestry Commission has just developed a strategic plan which will guide its operations into the future,” he said.
“It should be noted that the Forestry Commission has a critical role in enabling the ministry to contribute to the success of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and we stand guided by that document as we review our strategies.
“However, there is need for you to implement sustainable forest management practices of harvested areas in the indigenous hardwood timber areas including plantation forests in order to ensure constant availability of timber resources in the country.”
Minister Kasukuwere encouraged the new board to inculcate a business culture in the Forestry Commission through the implementation of the Performance Management System and Results-Based Management and ensure that the staff is rewarded for their performance.
Ngamo Safaris is a unit owned by Forestry Commission which it is currently using to grow its revenue base.
Developing and growing this unit apart from embarking on other new profitable joint venture initiatives and promoting value addition of products in the timber industry could help generate a lot of income for the parastal.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of the board, chairperson Patrick Zhuwao thanked Minister Kasukuwere for his confidence in the board.
“We would like to thank the minister for the confidence he has in us as a board,” said Zhuwao.
“It is known 53 percent of our rural households use firewood fuel and that tobacco is the fastest growing sector which is in the forefront of doing damage to the environment.
“We fully take on board the challenges given to us towards the reforestation of this country.
“We recognise there are a lot of activities that can be done to develop this sector.
“We acknowledge the increase of trees planted, but we would like to look at the number of trees cut down and be able to do far more than we are currently doing.”
The new board will have to, among other things, come up with strategies to address uncontrolled fires by working with Environmental Management Agency and other stakeholders, deal with poaching of wildlife and timber, have modern and efficient ways of strengthening the commission’s human resource base with a view of retaining professional and critical staff.
Offsetting the current tree planting rate of 6 000 hectares a year, which falls short of the deforestation rate of 300 000 hectares will also have to be high on the agenda for the new board which seems ready for the challenges thrust on them.
Other board members of the Forestry Commission include include Margaret Sangarwe, Winston Chitando, George Pangeti, Thomas Phinias Zuza Mpofu, Rose Mukogo, and Odreck Sibanda.

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