Friends of The Vumba

Friends of the Vumba : FOTV

We are a fairly newly established community based Trust with a Board of Trustees and a working committee. We aim to utilise conservation and education as
stepping stones towards a future where humans live in harmony with both the fauna and flora, thereby protecting the biodiversity that is vital to the wellbeing of
our whole environment and all that live within it.

We focus our activities on an area of approximately 500 square kilometres, including Lower, Middle and Upper Vumba as well as Burma Valley and surrounds. Central to the Vumba are the National Parks Vumba Botanical Gardens and their two forest reserves, one in the Botanical Gardens themselves and the other the
Bunga Forest.

FOTV’s main aim is to:

1. Enable a proactive and reactive fauna and flora protection unit as the foundation of preserving the environment
2. Support education and conservation community driven activities benefiting the people of the greater Vumba

We have 5 trained Scouts who:

• Execute daily patrol duties for illegal snare and wildlife hunting, illegal logging, charcoal making or forest plant harvesting.
• Execute extended covert forest patrols every month together with armed rangers
  from National Parks in Vumba, including the arrest of offenders.
• Maintain and submit information gathered on these patrols, to relevant stakeholders and/or relevant authorities in the Vumba.
• Educate community on environmental law and best practices wherever possible These scouts are also required to learn the legislated Acts of Environment, Parks and Wildlife, as well as Forestry and collaborate with them regularly with any arrests and relevant prosecutions required.

Our funds are raised through :

• Memberships for both corporate and individuals,
• Donations from residents and /or visitors, local or foreign
• Regular monthly guided Vumba Walks hosted on private Vumba or Burma Valley properties
• Private guided walks – from a 6 day hike to anything in between, including half day walks
• Annual Vumba Fair hosted at Tony’s Coffee Shop
• Annual Old Mutual Half Marathon Mountain Run hosted by Old Mutual
• Occasional events such as music or documentary film/talk evenings

Community based activities we get involved in include:

• Fire protection education and fighting of forest and bush fires
• Rabies education awareness and control through information leaflet distribution and rabies vaccinations in conjunction with Mutare SPCA
• Regular road rubbish cleanups, together with corporates, EMA and/or with schools
• Wildlife protection activities together with Parks, such as:
• Lion tracking and protection when present in the Vumba from time to time
• Python removal and relocation Hippo tracking and protection in Burma Valley damsÇ