By Varaidzo Dongozi
Varaidzo Dongozi is a freelance writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (AlertNet) Â? The double pressures of climate change and poverty threaten to make Africa one of the regions hardest hit by coming climate-related problems. Nowhere is that more evident than in Zimbabwe, where the urban poor already struggle to survive in a harsh economic climate.
Like many in Zimbabwe these days, Tinowimba Makoni, 33, is unemployed. A resident of Dangamvura, a township in Zimbabwe's eastern city of Mutare, he survives by cutting and selling firewood.
Mutare, located on the border with Mozambique, is Zimbabwe's fourth largest city and is spectacularly located in a valley surrounded by several ranges of mountains. For years the mountains have been known for their lush vegetation.
However over the past few years, the vegetation has slowly receded deep into the mountains as residents, mostly those with low incomes and with limited other options for fuel, have resorted to cutting down trees for firewood and to sell to an eager market.
Mutare has little manufacturing but the thick forests had been useful for absorbing the carbon dioxide emitted from the long lines of heavy vehicles that transit through Mutare, carrying cargo from the ports of neighbouring Mozambique. The continued destruction of the trees is slowly depriving the city of this.
But perhaps more tragically, the deforestation is stripping the city of its protection against floods. Worsening flooding has been a frequent problem in many parts of Zimbabwe, with nearly a hundred people killed and close to 200,000 left homeless in 2000 floods.
Researchers predict that as the various impacts of climate change continue to be felt, the poorest will be hit the hardest as they have few assets to help them to recover from shocks such as flooding and droughts.
This reality seems abstract to most urban people with low incomes, as currently their struggle is one for economic survival, to meet immediate needs.
Globally, the main drivers of rapid deforestation are industrial-scale agriculture to produce soya, palm oil and cattle; industrial logging driven by international demand for timber; and infrastructure development, especially for roads and dams.
POVERTY PUSHING DEFORESTATION
For many developing countries, however, poverty and population pressure as people seek farmland, fuel wood and building material seems to be the main drivers.
Makoni says that he started selling firewood three years ago, as that was the only option open to him to feed his family following the closure of the small company where he used to work, at the height of Zimbabwe's economic crisis.
"The company I was working for closed down and there were no other jobs," he said.
Together with two other neighbours from the township, he collects firewood from the city's mountains and sells it to residents in his neighbourhood. Each week he carries in three loads of wood on his head and then chops it and bundles it into small loads that he sells for $3 each.
He earns an average of $60 a week, which is adequate to meet his family's basic needs, including paying rent for his two-roomed cottage, buying food for his wife and children, and paying schooling costs.
"I am able to send my children to school through the money which I earn from selling firewood," Makoni said.
Efforts to curb environmental degradation by government departments and other agencies seem to be yielding few results, largely as a result of the realities faced by families like Makoni's.
"People know that they are degrading the environment, but they have limited options for energy, and what else can they do?" said Shame Mudzengereri of the Wildlife and Environmental Trust Fund of Zimbabwe, an organisation that has been championing environmental awareness among residents in Mutare.
His organisation has succeeded in curbing deforestation around mountains closer to the houses of people with middle incomes, he said, but making an impact in high-density areas, where people with low incomes reside, has been a challenge.
"This is clearly a case of poverty, because in the Cecil Kopje area where mostly the middle class people live, deforestation is not as apparent as along the other ranges of mountains adjacent to townships," Mudzengerei said.
Deforestation has spread across Zimbabwe like wildfire over the past five years due mainly to rising poverty, power cuts and firewood becoming the only available energy option for low-income earners.
While people with considerable incomes can afford options such as power generators and solar-power grids, the cost makes them inaccessible to low-income earners, who have little option but to turn to the forests.
In 2005, Zimbabwe had a forest cover of 43 percent. Since then, the country's forests have declined spectacularly, residents say, though figures on the decline are so far unavailable.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing electricity supply shortages and as a result power cuts have been as frequent as three or four days a week, sometimes in a row.
With limited options for alternative energy available to most urban poor people, deforestation in urban areas is likely to continue, a scenario which will stall efforts towards mitigating the effects of climate change and likely increase the country's vulnerability to weather-related disasters, experts say.
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