Project Detail

Dufuya Integrated Wetland Protection, Management, Sustainable Utilisation and Biogas Establishment

Dufuya Integrated project is located in lower Gweru area of Gweru District, Midlands Province. The project aims at building the capacity of local communities to restore, protect and sustainably utilise the wetlands which are being threatened and getting exinct as a result of livestock paddling and unplanned utilisation. In addition to protection of the wetland, the community will also promote the use of renewable energy technologies through the construction of 5 biogas digesters and 300 fuel saving stoves. This will help in reducing tree cutting as well as carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The community is working in close collaboration with Heifer International Zimbabwe who are going to provide livestock for the sustainance of the biogas digesters and for livelihood improvement

project activities
-construction of livestock wateriong troughs
-horticultural gardens
-establishment of agro -forestry units,livestock fodder banks
-construction of biodigester and demonstration of biogas production.
-wetland rehabilitation.

project outputs
-increased income through sell of horticultural products
-improved food security through draft power availability and crop yields.
-improved animal feed resource base throughestablishment of agro forstry units.
-a well conserved and productive wetland
-increased alternative energy sources and conservation of trees

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Heifer International Zimbabwe

Country:

Zimbabwe

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

Phase 2

Grant Amount:

US$ 28,975.12

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 19,483.72

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 4,139.53

Project Number:

ZIM/03/03

Start Date:

8/2003

End Date:

12/2005

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Photo Gallery

wood saving stoves (chingwa stoves) used by the dufuya community

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Project Characteristics and Results

Replication of project activities

Due to notable successes in the project, all project activities can without doubt be replicated in other similar wetlands.

Notable Community Participation

Dufuya Wetland Protection is a community initiative and the massive awareness campaign programme will be spearheaded by the community. SGP will facilitate and provide technical support and Dufuya will actively participate in implementing the project and a leadership committee has already been set up to coordinate the activities. The community will also be involved in self monitoring and evaluation of their activities. They have been involved in setting up indicators for al outputs which are useful benchmarks for achieving their targets.

Gender Focus

Dufuya comunity has 600 household and 85% of the members are women. The project will esult in great benefits acruing to the women especially the horticultural and acquaculture programme. In addition, 8% of the members are orphans due to the HIV/Aids pandemic and these aer also going to be assisted in terms of improving their livelihoods through this project.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Dufuya project lies in Chief Sogwala Area and eighteen kraal herds share this resource. This project is wholly undertaken by indigenous people with technical assistance from SGP.

Linkages gef projects

None

Planning non gef grant

None

Planning gef grant

Since most project components were achieved there is a possibility of scaling up of the project to medium size GEF project.

Policy Influence

The community has manged to formulate by laws where endorsed by the local authority and are being used to sustainably utilize the wetland. Environmental legislations were also taken aboard through consultations with the Environmental Management Agency

Capacity - Building Component

The project focuses on building the local community's capacity to restore and conserve biodiversity. This will be done through training and awareness raising on the need to protect the wetlands, institution building and strengthening, leadership training and local community resource mapping in order to produce an integrated community plan. Capacity will also be enhanced through training in catchment protection, water harvesting, soil enrichment and sustainable methods of wetland utilisation. The community is also going to be trained in the construction of biogas digesters

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The project is strong in this area especially ont he biogas component and use of renewable energy which will help to reduce carbon emissions. Protection of the wetland will help in ground water recharge which will result in the rejuvination of the biodiversity in the area.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The wetland has been rehabilitated. Dufuya is going to engage in income generation activities for livelihood improvement which include horticulture, acquaculture and agroforestry. Besides producing food for household consumption, they are going to produce for sale to neighbouring communities and this is going to boost their incomes.

Project sustainability

Through effective Trainings nad awareness meetings the project members are capacitated and this will ensure sustainability of the project. the commitment by members as well as support from the local leadership will ensure project sustainability

Project Results

Some considerable successes were made on these objectives and most of the planned components in the project were successfully implemented and some of them are as follows:

1. building of the local community's management capacity that was done through several awareness meetings, workshops and trainings.
2. training of the beneficiaries on the utilization and management of each project component was done to ensure total management and sustainability of each of the project component
3. the entire 60.5ha of the wetland area was fenced off using a 1.5m diamond mesh wire and barbed wire in order to restore and conserve the biodiversity in the wetland . treated gum poles were used to ensure durability of the fence.
4.The community livelihood was improved through horticulture, apiculture and improved animal management. 331 households are befitting from the horticulture enterprise.
5. A total of 10 fish ponds were dug and stocked with fish but production is very low and this could be due to water quality which is questionable for fish farming, hence need for water analysis.
6. Efficient energy usage is now being realized from the use of bioags and chingwa stoves. A total of 8 and twenty one families befitted from biogas and chingwa stoves respectively
7. Documentation of experiences and lessons learned is till in progress.

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