The end of the year always brings a natural pause, a moment to look back, breathe, and begin again. Lucky for us in the southern hemisphere, summer adds its own medicine: warmth, light, fresh air, mountains and forests and a reminder that rest is productive.
By way of thanks to everybody for their support all year round, Friends of the Vumba Trust would like to share some of the highlights and activities over this past interesting and challenging year.
Main focus
We remain primarily focused on deploying scouts to patrol the Vumba and Burma Valley environments for illegal activities that threaten the stability of the biodiversity that holds this vital mountain ecosystem together. This ultimately benefits all that live within it or pay us a visit, no matter whether human, flora or fauna.
We have 5 scouts that are employed in all sorts of activities besides their core focus with active anti-
poaching patrols. Having 3 motor bikes amongst the 5 of them to respond to reported illegal activities, has added significantly to their ability to respond timeously, it also makes them very visible as a resource to the wider community.
Beyond this, it allows them to ferry relative authorities to stake an ambush, assist in the arrest and fining of culprits, and attend community meetings.
They are also far more independent of the need to be transported by willing FOTV volunteers, which used to be the case and limited response times considerably. It also enables faster reactive times to requests for help against illegal activity from all within the wider community.
Included in their duties are regular extended patrols on Green Sanctuaries properties as well as a service providing quick response to any request for help, be it poaching, fires, dog hunting, etc. We are also looking to expand this relationship with an education outreach project in the new year.
The scouts patrol activities are governed by the relevant State Dept legislations ie the Parks and Wildlife Act ; Forest Act; Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act; Trapping of Animals Act; Protection of Wildlife Indemnity Act; and the Firearms Act. Defending Biodiversity within the community underlines them all.
Increased partnership response from these state departments will enhance the value of their activities enormously and so we persevere to get these to work. Most frustrating of all is that National Parks have still not signed any MOU with us, the first attempt being made in 2021.
Forestry appear hugely challenged to respond timeously to our many requests to meet with us or assist the scouts and other community members with follow up actions on illegal logging activities. We will continue to try to engage regardless of this and hope the relationship will improve as we both address increasingly worrying illegal timber harvesting.
EMA and the Mutare Rural District Council also require more formal partnering to leverage their role in helping us to apprehend lawbreakers and successfully prosecute.
Beyond their patrol activities the scouts perform Rubbish Cleanup days; road maintenance actions such as filling potholessuch as filling potholes, roadside clearing, painting bollards, and clearing picnic sites; clearing paths for walking trails, removing obstructing fallen trees, guiding the FOTV monthly walks as well as Vumba Trail full day hikes; and assisting at the annual Vumba Fair, OM Mountain Half Marathon and the newly established RunVumba trail run.
They are always available to assist with environmental issues or react to reports of illegal activities and have even been called upon to assist with road accidents in the middle of the night.
Chief Zimunya and community
In an effort to extend the FOTV Trust’s connection within the wider community, we hosted an environmental education workshop gathering with the newly inaugurated Chief Zimunya and 18 of his
headmen within the wider Vumba/Burma Valley area late last year.
The workshop proved highly enlightening to all and subsequently the scouts have attended a number of community meetings as well as various Chief’s gatherings this year.
The latest one was held at Crake Valley School where multiple parties from Burma Valley, Vumba and Mozambique were invited to “discuss ways we can improve the management of our environment”.
Included were Chief Zimunya, Headman Henry Kaswa as the key organiser, Wattle company, ZimParks Botanical Gardens Warden, Matanuska, Forestry Commission, Ward 33 Chairman Mr Bode as well as Chief Chirara’s representative, Border Patrol Police, and Councillor Magaka all from Mozambique.
FOTV Trust were represented by Charles Bandura as Head Scout and scout Kuda Nyarirangwe to take minutes plus new committee member Johannes Mukurumidze, wearing two hats for both
Matanuska and FOTV trust.
Some exciting actions were listed for specific parties to address, including:
- Deforestation and farming activities on steep slopes
- Cutting down of indigenous trees for Marasha
- Massive Cutting down of trees for tobacco projects in Burma Valley
- Investigation into Illegal gold panning activities up stream affecting dams and water sources
- Prosecution of perpetrators of veld fires
- Initiation of environmental friendly fish projects
- Clear illegal cultivation on slopes, river beds & rainforest areas
- Increased local environmental awareness and training
- Education on traditional beliefs where there may be tourist impact
Funds
We start the new year in a relatively financially stable position for which we are enormously grateful.
Donations
The annual OM Mountain Marathon once again has provided much needed funds with a donation of US$8,000, raised through the entry fees of the approx. 1200 runners, as one of OM’s CSR projects.
OM have been great supporters of our Trust and we hope to increase the visibility of the relationship.
The inaugural RunVumba was held in July. Offering 14 km, 21 km and 42 km runs starting and ending at the Vumba Botanical Gardens.
Challenging but visually stunning, they traversed forests, rolling grasslands and hills, and surprised seasoned runners with the sheer beauty of the course.
US$10 per participant was donated to FOTV Trust, amounting to $1030! Thank you Ryan!
One incredibly generous Vumba resident, choosing to remain anonymous, has provided approximately US$11,400 in total this year (translating ZWL and US$ to US$ total). This is absolutely lifechanging for us.
The Tikki Hywood Foundation (THF) and Ezytrack donated our third motorbike to improve our mobility further.
Understanding our challenges, they also invited Charles Bandura to a legal workshop hosted by THF in Mutare addressing how to improve the prosecution success of perpetrators arrested in our environment. Very powerful and grateful for the inclusion.
Casstech once again provided much needed assistance with donations of uniforms, boots, rainsuits and overalls.
JFT Tshirts, who print our wonderful FOTV Tshirts, donated a 4 man tent for camping use.
Other kind donations from within the community:
Free provision of accommodation for the scouts at Seldom Seen. Huge thanks to Ken and Sue Worsley as well as Ken’s time managing the scouts activities
Sally Preston for the organising of the monthly walks
Bruce Tokwe’s wonderful donation of a prize bullock for the inauguration of Chief Zimunya
Frank Marembo from Whitehorse Inn, provide the venue for the meetings held by Trustees
George Lock of Henning Lock provides legal advice and services pro bono.
Many different private homes as venues for the monthly walks and picnics afterwards
Use of a private truck for rubbish cleanups
Hivu provide the much appreciated lunches at cost for the road cleanup team.
Fantastic Raffle prizes were donated from Aberfoyle Lodge, Whitehorse Inn, Tonys Coffee Shop, HIVU nursery, Seldom Seen Lodge and Casa & Kumba
The Vumba Fair
Thank you once again Tony for allowing us to host the annual fundraising Vumba Fair in the gardens of the ever popular, iconic Tony’s Coffee Shop. It proved as enticing as ever with a great turnout for the wonderful variety of stalls, food, drink, children’s entertainment and live music and dancing.
As always we couldn’t manage without the long list of volunteers for the Fair, including the wonderful ladies manning the Tea Table and the students from the Manicaland State University of Applied
Sciences at the entrance table.
The scouts, Tony and his staff work tirelessly over 4 days, helping to setup, break down and assist stallholders and customers alike to carry goods in and out of the venue on the day.
Fi Eatwell, Tony and myself, as the main organisers, are exhausted at the end of it all, but of course recover and then start to plan and look forward to next year! I wish also to thank my husband Mal Fenwick, who is a rock of energy and enthusiasm all year round but especially at Vumba Fair time and is mostly an unsung hero.
Vumba Monthly Walks
Sally Preston manages these with her endless supply of passion and they remain wonderfully well supported with an increasing variety of walkers besides our regulars.
Memberships
Corporate Gold Memberships now include SPAR (have you seen their fabulous recipes?!) and Leopard Rock Hotel plus a Bronze member in Forest Hills Resort, for which we are super grateful Individuals, couples, pensioners and student memberships further bolster our funds but more importantly all members obtain voting rights at our AGM.
Alien invasives
Never mind the fire hazards created where invasives grow, the effect on the biodiversity of the whole area is almost immeasurable.
The scouts were involved in trying to put out fires more often than in previous years, not only due to there being perceivably more fires than before, but also because they are quite mobile to be able to react quickly enough together with 6 large firefighting paddles. The next challenge is to educate bystanders who don’t help at all and stand and watch others trying to put out the fire, perhaps believing it’s their job?!
Bee Bush
Ian Waters from Cit Chem donated 90 L of a new herbicide called Zonda16ME for testing with Bee bush eradication. The scouts have done many trial sessions over the year to see how effective it is and have concluded that it is highly effective if they cut and paint the cut stem with toothbrushes, rather than use as a spray. With the vast areas now under attack from bee bash, it is attractive to be able to spray, but this results in regrowth. Laborious work but we can recommend its use in this manner.
Gum trees
These remain a scourge in the Vumba and Burma Valley having been planted in many areas and then not maintained in any way to harvest properly, manage the coppicing for healthy secondary crops and ultimately prevent rampant spreading where not originally planned.
Timber merchants seem to help themselves at random at all hours of day and night. Licenses are never available if asked to show them. Stripping bark in-situ, taking what timber they want and leaving a huge mess of rejected fallen trees, damaged indigenous trees and shrubs, gouges dug into the topsoil as tree stumps are dragged before loading and leaving a ravaged landscape.
Other alien invasives running rampant and relatively unchecked are:
Ginger bush, Black wattle, Wattle, and Lantana.
An all-encompassing alien removal program is a big wish project for the whole of the Vumba and Burma Valley area
PVO Legislation
From a small community organisation to becoming a registered Trust, we are now required to register as a PVO. This has necessitated acquiring 2 new committee members:
Mr Johannes Mukurumidze: working for Matanuska in charge of legal affairs and HR, he is passionate about the outdoors and protecting the environment, as well as empowering schools with conservation education.
Mr Malachi Mwakutuya: A Vumba property owner, he works inn Mutare with EcoBank. Studying part time at AU for his PHD in “Agri Business and Natural resources”, he is driven by his passion to create a seedbank of Vumba indigenous plants and as a lover of nature, to spread this knowledge though open source to all interested.
We welcome feedback, more members and greater participation in the activities of the Trust.
With great blessings to you all, here’s hoping 2026 brings joy amidst change.
Sue Fenwick (Ingram), Chairperson Friends of the Vumba Trust
| Current Trustees: Sue Fenwick (Chairperson) Frank Marembo (Treasurer) Fi Eatwell (Secretary) Bruce Tokwe (Education and PR) | FOTV committee: Ken Worsley (Environment) Sally Preston (Walks) Sue Worsley (Ecologist and fund raising) Louise Bezuidenhout Vitalis Basera Rupert Hildebrand Johannes Mukurumidze Malachi Mwakutuya |
Website: https://friends-of-the-vumba.org