Burning briquettes: Firewood and charcoal trader Brenda Sibanda is one of the locals who supply firewood and charcoal to homes across Bulawayo. Photo: Nqobile Tshili
figureImbabwe's power shortages have been linked to widespread deforestation as illegal loggers increasingly cut down trees to produce charcoal for sale in big cities such as Bulawayo and Harare.
Desperate to make a living, locals like Loveness Ncube, 42, from Hwange, are frequently arrested and fined by police, after 20 years of illegally producing charcoal to support her family.
She said she has become the main supplier of charcoal to people in need in Bulawayo, and sometimes sellers have to pay bribes to sell their goods.
“We have clients but it’s not easy anymore because we have ZimParks rangers. [Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority] “They do surveillance and arrest anyone they find,” she said. “Sometimes you have to pay a bribe to get safe passage.”
Zimbabwe has long suffered from severe electricity shortages, mainly due to a lack of investment in energy generation infrastructure, but the situation has changed since President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power in 2017.
His administration led the construction of the Hwange Power Plant Units 7 and 8 expansion project, which received $1.5 billion in investment from China in 2018. The plant has now added 600 MW to the national grid and is the country's main electricity supplier.
Quick profits
According to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, the government has made great strides towards eliminating the power shortage, but the country still faces a power deficit of more than 300MW. At least 300,000 households still need to be connected to the national grid, according to public records.
This energy shortage has led to an increase in illegal logging, with mopane trees being a prime target because they are thought to produce the highest quality coal: Mopane trees take 35 years to fully grow, but are cut down and burned within minutes.
Charcoal production is illegal in Zimbabwe but it is sold openly in Bulawayo's densely populated suburbs, causing widespread environmental damage unbeknownst to most consumers.
Experts fear that if the situation is not prevented, the country will lose vast swathes of land to deforestation: about 330,000 hectares of forest are lost each year, according to the country's forestry authority, the Forestry Commission.
Matabeleland North is feeling the adverse effects, with the commission saying more than 14,302 hectares of land was lost to deforestation in the province between 2001 and 2023.
Forestry Commission Chief Conservator for Bulawayo and Matabeleland North Armstrong Tembo linked the demand for electricity to the thriving charcoal business, saying “as electricity consumers turn to charcoal, the environment deteriorates.”
“This is really devastating. We're talking about old-growth hardwood forests that take a long time to grow,” he explained. “What's disturbing is that these people are poaching the timber and they're not investing in it. It's just a quick buck for them, and they're selling it at a low price without giving anything back to the communities or reforesting.”
The punishment is small
Tembo said it was becoming increasingly difficult to catch some illegal loggers as they were constantly changing their tactics and “innovating” to evade the law.
He said current laws do nothing to stop perpetrators from committing the crime multiple times, and he even called the penalties “paltry.”
Zimbabwe's Forest Code [19:05]The law, enacted to protect the country's forests, imposes penalties of up to level 8 fines (equivalent to US$500) or up to two years in prison for violators. Although arrests have been made, public records show that individuals found violating the law have only been fined.
“Those who are arrested pay the fine, go home and commit crimes again because fines alone are not enough of a deterrent,” Tembo said. “We are now calling for prison sentences, which might wake them up.”
Conspirator
Another hotspot for the illegal charcoal business is Hwange, mainly due to its proximity to Hwange National Park and Hwange Coal Mine.
Hwange District Council environment and natural resources officer Nkusolelani Ncube described the crime as “well organised”.
“Some illegal loggers also use trucks transporting coal from Hwange Colliery to smuggle their product out of the district,” he said.
Ncube said as law enforcement agencies stepped up their crackdown on illegal loggers, they were responding by changing their tactics, such as operating at night.
“Some people bring chainsaws and they're using some pretty undesirable methods to cut trees,” he said.
The district council has been running awareness campaigns in collaboration with Zimparks, the Forestry Commission and the police, but their efforts are yet to yield any real results.
Ncube said there should be more engagement with the justice system, “perhaps that’s [of the deforestation] And what do these trees give us?
While it is difficult to stop the demand for charcoal due to the power shortage, Ncube suggested people consider adopting renewable energy sources. “People in urban areas should strive to use biogas digesters, utilise LPG and solar power and avoid using natural resources such as charcoal which are destructive,” Ncube said.
Carbon sinking
Hwange's reliance on coal creates a difficult situation for environmental lobbyists.
Daniel Sithole, executive director of the Hwange-based Green Shango Environmental Trust, said more needed to be done to stop deforestation in and around the town.
“Hwange is a fossil fuel mining town, so reducing the carbon sink in the forest is a challenge,” he said. “As long as the mining continues, we need trees to absorb the extra carbon.”
Carbon sinks help regulate the climate by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, which is why it's so important to have thick forests near where coal is mined and burned.
Sithole added that illegal charcoal production is fuelling human-wildlife conflict within Hwange National Park as residents encroach on animal habitats to make a living.
For Brenda Sibanda, who sells charcoal in Bulawayo's Cowdray Park, environmental issues are of no concern.
“Most of my clients are not connected to the national grid,” she explained. Charcoal is cheaper than liquefied petroleum gas (LP) and firewood. Even those who are connected to the grid come to us during power outages,” she said.
Sibanda supports her family and pays for her school fees by selling charcoal. She sells a plastic bag of charcoal for $1 and a 20-litre bucket for $4.
Tougher penalties
In April this year, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said Zimbabwe was reviewing its laws to curb forest crime. He was addressing delegates at a humans and wildlife conference held on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo.
“The government has taken proactive steps to strengthen the regulatory accountability of the Forestry Commission,” he said. “The Forestry Act has been amended by the Forestry Act Amendment Bill with the aim of strengthening forest protection and combating wildfires through the introduction of mandatory and deterrent sentences. These legislative measures demonstrate our determination to protect our precious forests for future generations.”
He further said that protecting the environment would pave the way for international funding and sustainable protection of the environment.
Nqobile Tshili, Yolanda Moyo and Nkosana Vuma are Zimbabwe-based journalists. Oxpecker #PowerTracker training programme “The nexus of data and environmental journalism”. The research is part of the Oxpeckers series “The human cost of energy” and is a collaboration between Oxpeckers, The Chronicle and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. The collaboration is supported by the Fojo Journalism Education Programme embedded in International Media Support and the Sida-funded Media Nexus Programme 2022-2025 of the Fojo Media Institute, Zimbabwe.
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