Project Detail

Site Based Biodiversity Conservation in Settled Lands in Binga and Guruve.

The project is designed to address the issue of biodiversity loss and consequent ecosystem improveshment at important sites within settled lands due to unsustainable resource extraction and or the conversion of sites and areas of high biodiversity importance to agriculture or other uses. 23 sites in three districts have been priotised for conservation action because of their exceptionally high biodiversity importance,allied to levels of threat from agricultural and other activities. These sites are located in Binga, Guruve and Muzarabani districts and collectively total 23 620 ha in area.The selected sites represent key components of a range of Zambezi Basin ecosystems including dry forests, riverine woodlands,wetland ecosystems and transition zones between medium and low altitude ecosystems. The sites also form reservoirs of diversity for several biological groups including small mammals, birds, reptiles and lepididoptera.Maintenance of the sites will contribute to the continued intergrity of ecosystems and ecosystem processes, and therefore to human wellbeing.

The project objectives are
-development and implementation of sustainable community based strategies for the conservation of 23 sites of high importance to local, regional and global biological diversity.
-improve local and district understanding and monitoring of biological diversity.
-monitor effectiveness of site conservation strategies.
-produce and publish project findings and methodologies for replication.

The results produced by the project include
1. 23 specific areas under site -specific conservation strategies,incorporating strategies for sustainable livelihoods linked to sustainable site utilisation.
-values added to benefits accruing from other specie , resources and NRMprojects, including wildlife conservation and utilisation- projects.
3. increased community and local authority understanding of GEFSGP/Zambezi Society approaches to biodiversity and biological sustainability.
4. local community"ownership"of site maintenance strategies, sustainable livelihood strategies, and economic, cultural and social benefits.

The activities involve conserving biological diversity of project sites and areas and training of local community members so as to improve local and district understanding and monitoring of biological diversity.

The results from this project include;
-biological degradation and or conversion to agriculture halted at 20 sites.
-conservation strategies for sites drawn up and implementation initiated for 20 sites.
-district level booklets produced and distributed.
-three biodiversity monitors trained and operatioal
-community leaders aware of ,understand,and are suppotive of Zambezi Society objectives and philosophies.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Zambezi Society

Country:

Zimbabwe

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 49,798.64

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 14,500.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 15,454.55

Project Number:

ZIM/01/02

Start Date:

6/2001

End Date:

11/2003

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Areas selected for the project i.e. Guruve, Muzarabani and Binga comprise different tribes and indigenous people. An example is Binga where there are the Tonga people who are now a minority group. These indigenous people are going to be actively involved in project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. However, they will need a lot of training and strengthening on report writing given their low literacy rates.

Policy Impact

No significant impact on policy was made.

Capacity - Building Component

Success and sustainability of the project lies in the groups being able to effectively implement the identified conservation strategies. These groups are going to be trained on work plan and activity scheduling, record keeping, financial management, monitoring and evaluation. In every district one local biodiversity monitor is going to be trained who will help in offering technical advice and monitoring the changes in biodiversity during project implementation.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The Project aims at promoting awareness on biodiversity issues and one of the activities will be the production of information booklets. These booklets will summarise site specific strategies, guidelines on training biodiversity monitors and methodologies used in project implementation. These will be distributed to a wider national and regional guidance and Zambezi Society will be responsible for this activity.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The Project worked with the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa that helped in the carrying out of baseline surveys to establish the current status of the woodlands.

Notable Community Participation

The participating groups have been involved in the decision making process by identifying and formulating appropriate conservation strategies for implementation. They are also going to play a pivotal role in monitoring the effectiveness of their conservation strategies and evaluating project performance when the project comes to an end.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The site specific strategies will encompass sustainable use of the forests to improve livelihoods. The different groups are going to engage in different activities and some of them include apiary, ecotourism and collection of wild fruits for consumption and for sale. Other sustainable livelihood issues will also come up during the training sessions to be conducted as funds become available.

Gender Focus

There has been gender consideration as evidenced by the equal participation of men and women in the decision making process. However, in some of the areas like Binga, there are cultural barriers as people are strongly tied to their culture and are still marginalised that women are not yet empowered to speak out their views and take up leadership roles. However, the project looks forward to training and empowering these women to ensure that they are actively involved in all the facets of the project cycle.

Project Results

Although not much results were realized what this project achieved was more of giving an awreness of existence of the sites to the local communties at the same time gaining some insights on indicative bahaivour of local residents. The area coverage was too vast. The funds were also inadequate due to the highly inflationary environment.

In terms of objectve 1: development of sustainable community based strategies for the conservation of 23 sites of high importance to local, regional and global biodiversity, a launch of the project was done which entailed a meeting with three district authorities. In Binga three sites were toured and villages and their leaders identified, although technocrats were not available for the tour. In Guruve 12 sites were toured and areas of degradation that needed to be manged were identified. In Muzarabhani 5 areas were toured.

The villagers identified several projects that could be implemnted to conserve their environment. These included bee keeping, mushroom production, eco tourism, resource centers, site boundary pegging, tuck- shop for grocery selling and piri piri farming.

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