Environmental research

1.1 Project Summary The project intervention proposed seeks to reverse land degradation in wards 9, 10, 11 and 14 of Zhombe through building the capacities of the community in Zhombe district to holistically manage their land, livestock and homestead. A variety of capacity building strategies, tools and approaches that promote community participation, gender equity and sustainable livelihoods towards reversal of land degradation. This project is premised on the fact that drought is an overriding factor in degradation of cultivated lands and rangelands in many parts of the country, as seen in communities such as Zhombe, impacting on plant cover, livestock numbers, as well as on personal wealth of rural people. Drought increases soil degradation which magnifies the effects of the disaster. In Zhombe droughts have aggravated environmental degradation through ecosystem and climatic effects, including phenomena such as: deforestation; livestock overgrazing; soil erosion; wild fires; biodiversity loss; and water pollution. The social effects include reduced potable water supplies with negative health and sanitation consequences, especially for the vulnerable groups, and increased drudgery by women in collecting water for household consumption. These impacts have caught communities unaware and have resulted in crop damage, water shortage, and decreased soil fertility in some instances. These impacts of climate change have reduced the agricultural production levels of SHDF members, particularly in Zhombe, a known drought prone area which lies in Region III. Generally, drought-caused disasters are inform of reduced agricultural production emanating from crop failures and decline in livestock production, resulting in weakened food security conditions for millions. SHDF members in Zhombe depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood, they rely on rainfall for their agriculture and food production therefore the impacts of climate change are felt more severely.These communities are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because they have low adaptive capacity to cope with these impacts, hence the proposed intervention strategies. The community in Zhombe draws its livelihoods from various agro-based initiatives e.g. farming, arts and crafts; and as such their economic base is hinged on the availability and quality of natural resources. In Zhombe East, ward 9, there is massive illegal gold panning taking place for the past 10 years. Land degradation continues to take its toll as the youth continue to pan for gold shunning farming due to erratic rainfall patterns. Gold panning has since attracted many youths from within and outside Zhombe, with a heavy devastating effect on the land hence the call for sanity by the affected communities. Request from the SHDF members in Zhombe recently has been for a holistic environment program that will see an improvement in the management of their natural resources especially land, the effective utilization of household assets such as livestock, the integration of household livelihoods and management issues. To this end, SHDF is proposing the following intervention that will equip community members in Zhombe with holistic land, livestock and homestead management skills. In addition the women will holdHomestead competitions to promote this enhanced environmental program. Leaders and innovators in the community will be identified, trained, exposed to other viable environmental projects and equipped to continuously champion holistic environmental management. To boost the sustainability of livelihoods a business development component that provides training in technical skills, business management and linking with formal high value markets will be incorporated. Participatory training, monitoring and evaluation methodologies will be adopted to increase project ownership by the community. Existing SHDF structures in the district will be used as entry points for project. It is envisaged that the project will cover4 wards in Zhombe with at least 600 people participating in the project. Table 1: Participating villages Name of ward Name of village Total membership Total women Total men Total youth 14 Senkwasi 100 50 30 20 10 Gwenzi 250 100 50 50 9 Zhombe East 140 50 20 70 11 Ntabeni/Ngigeni 160 100 30 30 GRAND TOTAL 650 300 130 170 1.2 Organizational Background and Capacity to implement the project SHDF is an organization which works in the area of sustainable community development particularly in rural areas with a direct focus on building women s capacities to become economically self-reliant. The organization was established in 1963 and has gone through continued re-focusing to remain relevant to its members and the operating environment. 80% of our members are in the rural areas, with 20% in the urban areas. Of the 20 000 club members, 97% are female. SHDF is operating in 20 districts nationally. The core activities of SHDF include providing group development support to communities, promoting formation of community groups, training the leaders through mentoring, coaching, grooming. Other activities include promoting sustainable development through various capacity building initiatives such as business development services that include training in business management, technical skills and marketing. Promotion of organized farming activities, training of farmers on Faming as a Business, with emphasis on components like, Environment and Gender has helped to stimulate entrep

Zimbabwe