Chairperson’s Report
Welcome to the FOTV Trust’s 4th AGM once again being kindly hosted by Frank Marembo at Whitehorse Inn. Thank you to all of you who have made the time to be here. We will share with you today what we have been up to and we welcome any further ideas and contributions to expand our purpose.
Year in Review
The past year has been really busy for Friends of the Vumba Trust as we continue to challenge all threats to this unique Key Biodiverse Area with its numerous clean beautiful rivers, dams and waterfalls, clean mountain air, iconic indigenous forests, rich diversity of flora and fauna and of course the cool mists enveloping it all on occasions.
Anti-poaching continues to be the key focus for us and this increasingly includes illegal timber poaching.
The scouts will talk about the extent of their patrol activities but notably, they also include such things as animal anti-cruelty education where abuse is witnessed, roadside waste management, guided day walks plus longer extended overnight hikes, clearing of fallen trees on the roads and paths, rescuing traffic accident victims, performing security patrols at night over key public holidays, reacting to robbery reports and lately the slashing of roadside bee-bush to test the effectiveness of a new herbicide called Zonda 16ME, donated by Ian Waters, for further rollout within the Vumba environs. As always they try their best to work alongside the relevant authorities, being National Parks, Forestry, EMA and the ZRP.
The logistics required to traverse the wide area we protect, being Upper, Middle and Lower Vumba as well as Burma Valley has been transformed in efficiency levels by the acquisition of the 3 motorbikes parked outside.
We had our third motorbike donated through The Tikki Hywood Foundation (THF) and Ezytrack, one of the largest vehicle tracking and telemetry solutions providers in Zimbabwe. Sebastian Ahrens from EzyTrack personally delivered the bike to us in the Vumba and then installed a tracking device as well! Not only another arrow in our sheath but one that’s being tracked for distances travelled as well as how well the bike is being driven! Having 3 bikes and 5 scouts enables a far more logistically effective team, independent of the need for assistance from us volunteers with bakkies.
It has been very positive to engage with Lisa Hywood of the Tikki Hywood Foundation in the Vumba again and benefit from her vast experience. Besides enabling the bike donation, she organized a legal workshop in Mutare, the purpose of which was to enable more effective prosecutions of wildlife crime and included Magistrates, Prosecutors, Police and Parks officers. Charles Bandura, our head scout, as well as Mr Batsirai Mapungwana, the Head Warden from National Parks Botanical Gardens, were also both included.
This focused on an area of great frustration to our team – being the ongoing lack of effective law enforcement. Included were details of the relevant legislation whose laws the scouts uphold in all their patrol duties. These cover the Environment Management Act, Forest Act, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the Parks and Wildlife Act, the Protection of Wildlife Act and the Trapping of Animals Act.
The THF have produced a handbook for Prosecuting Wildlife in Zimbabwe and we were provided with copies for our FOTV scouts and Parks as well as relevant community members.
Sustainable Afforestation Association (SAA)
We luckily acquired the full time Vumba residence of Sue Childes as our very own Ecologist and valuable member of FOTV. Sue has played a pivotal role for FOTV in addressing the lack of environment impact assessment, especially where the activities of SAA in the Vumba are concerned. Besides our horror at witnessing new gum plantations amongst the rampant unmanaged and unsightly feral gums, we challenged the sustainability of their actions. The logistics alone seem to make nonsense of any cost effective plan to get the harvested gums to the relevant tobacco growers, all far removed from the Vumba environs.
As a result of our objections, together with Julia Pierini of Birdlife Zimbabwe’s influential assistance, a workshop was hosted by SAA, together with Forestry, Parks, RDC, EMA, Presidents Office, and a lawyer from ZELA. A lengthy prospectus was produced by SAA as requested by EMA, highlighting their modus operandi in the Vumba, but the result leaves us unhappy and still having to attempt to approach the respective authorities to focus on how destructive the planting of new gum plantations are and to try and find alternative ways to use the land and protect our Key Biodiverse Area.
Outreach workshop: Why is Biodiversity Important to All
The interactions with all the various parties around this SAA issue, led us to an awareness of the need for improved connection with the wider Vumba community. Understanding there being a perception by some of FOTV being elitist, as well as a requirement for wider education on the need for environmental protection, we arranged an Environmental Educational workshop with newly inaugurated Chief Zimunya and 20 of his Traditional Leaders.
Facilitated by Professor Alexander Rusero, Head of Department of International Relations, College of Social Sciences, Theology, Humanities and Education, Africa University, he emphasised the role of traditional leaders in protecting and preserving the biosphere. This he defined
as “encompassing people, water, air, wildlife, trees, and all that exists within it,” asserting that “communities are the stewards of the biosphere and are accountable for its well-being”.
The workshop created a whole new dimension for us in terms of wider community interaction and has enabled the scouts especially, to further engage with the various traditional leaders with sanction from their Chief.
However, further specific activities with The Chief and his Traditional leaders are still being planned.
Green Sanctuary
FOTV have extended our contract with the international trust called Green Sanctuaries (GS) for protection of their two properties in the Vumba and early January we met with a team of 3 who travelled from Paris to see what the property actually consisted of. While here we organized a gathering on their behalf to meet with a few of their near neighbors to explain their objectives in protecting and preserving the equatorial forests on their properties.
A further idea they wish to implement together with FOTV is an educational community project, possibly incorporating a local school, as established in other countries where they have similar forest preserving projects.
Also as a result of their visit, we held a long overdue meeting with The Wattle Company, after which the scouts have begun working more closely with them on poaching issues from locals as well as Mozambicans, plus gearing up for improved fire prevention and protection, for which Wattle Co are well educated and experienced.
Another benefit of working with GS has been the connection with Christopher Chapano, Head of the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, who was tasked with an official survey of all plants on the GS properties and with luck will do more in the Vumba environs. He has also been included in environmental impact assessments of the SAA new gum plantings and has included Sue Childes and myself in his findings.
Thank Yous
As always in a community Trust greatly dependent on volunteer contributions I wish to thank a great number of people!
Ken Worsley’s Environment report will highlight the further enhancement of the accommodation for the scouts at Seldom Seen, mostly at shared costs with FOTV, for which we are incredibly appreciative. Beyond Ken’s role in managing the scouts, Seldom Seen’s contribution has been pivotal to the success of the scouts, as well as a perceived increase in their morale and professional conduct.
The scouts themselves remain dedicated to the onerous tasks involved in working outdoors under all weather conditions and all hours, including fast reactions to community requests for help, tipoffs and reports of illegal activities.
We are truly grateful to have such a professional team, lead very ably by Charles Bandura. Well done team!
Another hero for the FOTV trust is Sally Preston whose tireless energy astounds us all. In managing the monthly Vumba Walks she not only provides a great variety of walks to offer an increasingly varied crowd of appreciative walkers, she raises extra funds and showcases to the world how beautiful the Vumba and surrounds are.
It must also be noted that The Vumba Trail, designed and created by Tempe van der Ruit, and maintained when possible by the scouts, has received a steady increase in demand by hikers, mostly coming via Sally at HIVU, or Ken at Seldom Seen.
The annual Vumba Fair has Tony Robinson to thank for providing the venue at the iconic Tony’s Coffee Shop, as well as his enthusiasm and energy in organizing it. This doesn’t ever seem to raise enough money to equate to the time consuming effort expended but it is a whole lot more than just a fund raiser. It has a solid brand to uphold now and assists us in increasing the awareness for FOTV as well as the Vumba as a tourist destination.
Donations
Once again, we are hugely grateful for the continued financial support from our key donors, memberships, and fund raising activities.
A Vumba resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, contributes a substantial amount every month, for which we are enormously grateful and extremely reliant.
The annual Old Mutual Mountain Marathon not only contributes a fabulous event in the Vumba that attracts people nationwide, it provides for a significant financial CSR donation to the FOTV Trust.
We are also looking forward to the inaugural RunVumba on 12th July, following on from RunNyanga and RunChimanimani to be run annually, from which a generous donation has been offered by the organizer, Ryan Moss.
We have also enjoyed the wonderful repeated donation of 2 pairs of boots, worker overalls and protective gloves for each of our 5 scouts, from Paul Coates and his industrial security equipment company Casstech, Plus paint brushes that were used to paint the roadside bollards. He also arranged for an excellent service providing for private tailored uniforms for the scouts at very competitive rates with excellent quality.
The financial burden of taking over from Louise Bezuidenhout’s management of our accounts and payroll together with all the painful legislative requirements was gamely taken on Maureen Alves. We are eternally thankful she is there every month to lean on with a wonderful can-do attitude. The challenges are far from conquered so we are also mightily relieved she has agreed to continue to “do the books”.
George Lock’s pro bono legal advice, can never to be under appreciated an d we are always indebted. Current concerns are the PVO registration requirement, as well as our registration as a nonprofit organization which is important to companies donating money to us.
Education has proved to be another difficult year for us which Bruce Tokwe will talk to, but remains something we will persevere with until we get it right.
FOTV Trust Web site is still a work in progress, having had to start again from scratch. Working with Ben Kies on a pro bono basis I am confident we will see some great progress.
As always and never underestimated, a massive thanks go to all our committee members and the Trustees for their valuable time donated so willingly but there are also many individuals who step up to make the annual Vumba Fair and OM Mountain Marathon happen. Thank you to ALL of you!
Time seems to disappear increasingly faster every year, but the Trustees have continued to meet regularly and address the issues raised by the various working committees who continue to ‘meet’ online.
There is, as always, a list of projects we focus on, that require additional fundraising for implementation. Needless to say, more volunteers and resources are continually sought and we would welcome more input and action from the wider community to help make these happen!
With gratitude for everybody’s assistance to make this community group stronger and better every year.
Sue Fenwick.
Chairperson, FOVT Trustees