TREES FOR TOURISM DESTINATION ZIMBABWE

Yearly Zimbabwe is seeing an increase in number of visitors from across the globe. This is attributed to the settling and stabilizing of the economy since 2009. This has meant that the supply chain has normalized and thus is operating at international standards. Visitors to Zimbabwe’s Holiday Resorts either use air or road or while there they engage in various activities like Game Viewing, rafting, kayaking, and cruises. Both the travelling and the in house activities produce pollutants like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere. The polluted air has adverse effects on humans, animals and plant life.

It is against this background that as Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe Trust added Trees-For-Tourism to our list of activities. The idea is to tourists and other relevant stakeholders to get involved and participate in tree planting as a means of healing the damaged environment. Planting of trees will ensure sustainability of life at holiday resorts and communities in Zimbabwe, preservation of both flora and fauna, provision of food (via fruits and edible vegetables) to visitors and surrounding communities, cleansing of the air we breathe, offsetting of our carbon foot print and a reliable habitat for animals.

As we celebrate the New Year we all need to remember that we live in an earth with finite resources and it’s our responsibility to preserve it, replenish the resources to ensure future generations will also have resources to utilize. For us to continue to enjoy our Holiday Resorts and Zimbabwe as a whole, we need to participate in preserving the environment.

The first visitors to participate in our Adopt-A-Tree/Trees-for-Tourism were Christina DeLeon and Ellie Oliver from the United States of America who planted trees at Kachuta Primary School in Domboshava. Trees planted include Fever-Berry, Muzhanje, Snote Apple (Mutohwe) and Marula (Mapfura).