Bio-diversity

1.1 Project Summary The Chitora wetlands conservation and integrated livelihoods for biodiversity conservation is a community driven intervention to be implemented in ward 1 (Chitora) in the rural communities of Shurugwi district, under Tongogara Rural District Council.The key environmental problems to be addressed by the project include the current wetlands depletion as a result of unsustainable utilization and land degradation in the area. All members of the community lead a natural resource based livelihoods; therefore there is a sharp decline and degradation of wetlands due to the heavy reliance on them by communities for gardening and watering livestock during the dry season when water becomes scarce. The project targets three major wetlands which are Faquar 1, Tugwi Dekete and Mushandirapamwe. The Faquar 1 wetland measuring 4 hectares is in Faquar Village 1 and is being utilized for community gardening by a group of 8 men and 17 women household heads. Initially, the wetland had a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Most of them are on the verge of extinction due to degradation and drying up of some parts of the wetland. Most common flora species include reeds, water berry trees, water lilies and many species of wetland grasses.The fauna species present include different bird species like stock bird, king fisher, ducks and red barret. Different insects, snails, catfish and amphibian species are found in the wetland. This wetland plays a very important role in providing enough water for community needs during droughts when all other areas dry up. The members of the garden produce leaf vegetables, tomatoes and other horticultural produces for household consumption. They use the brush wood fencing system due to lack of security fence and other innovative live fencing techniques. The cutting down of trees in the surrounding area has a negative feedback on the quality of this wetland due to encroaching deforestation and catchment degradation. Tugwi-Dekete wetland is an extensive 6 hectares area closer to Tugwi River. It is being utilized for community gardening by 21 household members of the Chitora village comprising of 11 women and 10 men. The most dominant fauna species are different types of grass, reeds, water weeds, tuber plants, and some indigenous tree species which are on the verge of extinction. This wetland area is a habitat of most insect species, birds like weaver birds, white stock birds, ducks and red barret. Hares, amphibians and fish species like breams, catfish and carp are very common in this wetland. During the dry season, the 2 hectares garden initiated in the past 2 years produces maize and vegetables for household consumption. The major challenges to this wetland s conservation are deforestation of the surrounding catchment due to brushwood fencing as well as unplanned land use for the wetland gardening project. Local community members has shown that when given necessary resources for fencing and wetlands management training activities, they have a greater opportunity to improve their livelihoods through the proposed wetland conservation project for biodiversity conservation. The Mushandirapamwe wetland in-Mushandirapamwe village is a 5 hectares piece of land that is evergreen even during the drought period. The fauna species in the area include amphibians, fish (breams, catfish and carp), worms, repitiles, different bird species (weaver birds, ducks and king fisher), small mammals and different insects. There are also many species of grass and some water berry tree species on the flora side. Most of the biodiversity species in this wetland are not clearly visible during dry season due to wetland degradation and drying up of the area. A total of 15 members comprising of 6 men and 9 women are working in this wetland as individual gardens, producing vegetables, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and maize for household consumption. They also sell the surplus from the gardens to local markets. Under the individual use of wetland sections, there is tragedy of the commons in terms of poor utilization of the wetlands since there is lack of coordinated conservation and management practices for this wetland. The proposed approach including training, awareness raising and setting upof demonstration plots are some of the participatory approaches for community empowerment.The communities will be supported with fencing materials in order to protect their wetlands as well as reducing deforestation of the surrounding catchments as a result of brushwood fencing. This gives them an opportunity for implementing planned wetland gardens for improving household food security and incomewithout destruction of their crops by livestock. With the proposed market linkages approach for garden produce, the beneficiaries from wetland gardens will get sustainable income and this becomes the incentive for wetland conservation.The major markets for the garden produce include Servcor Catering Company at Unki Platinum Mine and Todal. Local boarding schools like Tongogara High School and Hanke Mission are some of the targeted institutional markets that Shurugwi Partners has linked most of garden farmers with. Local market from other villagers is also targeted as it is highly demanding. The construction of water harvesting weirs will be carried out to put in place water reservoirs to reduce continued interference with the whole wetland area by people and livestock. Weirs will be established both inside the wetland area

Zimbabwe