Style

30 THE STANDARD STYLE / ENVIRONMENT
August 24 to 30 2014
‘The environment can only take
care of us when we take care of it.’
Michael Nott
IT all began on a farm in Zimbabwe
where Charlene Hewat grew
up. She came across the carcass
of a rhino that had been poached
and this sad event sparked off her
lifelong passion for the environment
and her determination to do
something to protect it.
Charlene [or Charlie as she is
affectionately known] decided to
take action to protect the endangered
species and to raise awareness
about environmental issues.
Together with her friend Julie Edwards
they decided to do a 22 000
km, transcontinental bicycle ride
to raise funds and awareness for endangered
species, the Black Rhino
in particular.
The “Rhino Girls”, as they became
known, set out from Glasgow,
Scotland in September 1986
and rode across Europe and down
through Africa arriving in Harare
nearly a year later! The project led
to the production of the book, Extinction
is Forever (together with
Alan Munn) and paved the way for
the establishment of Environment
2000 which later became Environment
Africa. The renaming of the
organisation was in part to express
their commitment to environmental
issues in the whole of Africa and
they now have branches in Zambia,
Mozambique and Malawi. Environment
Africa has also been invited to
share their skills and their passion
in South Africa and Tanzania, so
they’re a truly pan-African organisation.
Environment Africa is not only
committed to preserving and conserving
the environment, they are
also concerned with helping and
supporting communities, in particular
poor and marginalised communities.
This includes teaching
people about sustainable farming
methods, soil preservation, renewable
energy sources, bio-diversity,
tree planting and bee keeping as
well as responsible waste management
and a recycling programme.
They state that one of their guiding
principles is “African solutions to
African challenges through actionbased
learning, harnessing indigenous
knowledge systems and building
up local safety nets systems.”
Although they are currently involved
in a number of different
projects, there are two areas that
they are especially focused on. As a
founding member of the “Clean up
the World Campaign” they’ve been
involved in clean ups across the
country since 1993. They have been,
and still are, hugely concerned
about the enormous amounts of litter
in all parts of the country. Clean
ups are part of their programme
but they’re also seriously committed
to raising awareness and
encouraging people to behave in a
more responsible manner. Recently
they’ve taken another step forward
in the battle against illegal littering
and dumping and have begun more
intensive recycling projects. In 2013
Environment Africa launched their
colour-coded bin liners to facilitate
separating waste at the source and
to make recycling easier. There are
different colour codes for glass,
plastic, tins, paper and bio-degradable
matter, i.e. red for glass, yellow
for paper, green for plastic, blue
for cans and black general general
waste. They promote the composting
of bio-degradable waste and to
this end they offer monthly courses
for gardeners on how to make and
use compost.
Their ultimate goal is to reduce
the amount of rubbish coming out
of our homes, shops, businesses
and public events. They are not
only concerned about the problem
of waste management in our cities
and towns, they’ve also been working
with the Parks and Wildlife
Management Authorities to keep
our national parks litter free. The
project called “Carry In - Carry
Out” means that all visitors to the
Parks should receive a large bin
bag on entry and are expected to
carry out all non biodegradable
waste when they leave. They have
also been promoting vehicle litter
bags and bus bins which they have
distributed to motorists, taxis, commuter
omnibuses and buses. The
Ambassador for this campaign is
Mary Wazara of Plastix Incorporated
who has led the way in plastic
recycling. There are currently
four recycling centres in Harare
– Greendale, Monavale, Avondale
and a new centre to be opened
shortly at Fife Avenue Shopping
Centre. There are plans to have recycling
centres across the country,
especially in places like Victoria
Falls and Beitbridge.
The second major area of concern
for Environment Africa is
deforestation, which has reached
alarming proportions in Zimbabwe.
To this end in December 2012,
on national tree planting day, they
launched the ‘For Every Child a
Tree’ campaign at the University
of Zimbabwe, where 273 trees were
planted. From 2012 to 2013 more
than 80,000 trees were planted by
Environment Africa. The idea is
that if a tree is planted and named
after a child, the child will be responsible
for caring and nurturing
the tree until it reaches maturity.
Charlene believes, “We are all children
of the planet; imagine the impact
we could have if each one of
us planted a tree in our name”. The
Goodwill Ambassador of this campaign
is Zimbabwean Wayne Black
who runs Pure Earth nurseries and
promotes the planting of indigenous
trees. This initiative ties in
neatly with their Wildlife Forestry
and beekeeping programmes.
Last year their Individual Environmental
Champion was Abraham
Chaukura, the headman from
the Mutasa rural district. He is a
master beekeeper, making a reasonable
income from honey as well as
hiring out his bees for pollination
in farms and orchards around the
Nyanga district. He is also involved
in tree planting activities and has
planted 500 indigenous trees since
2012. He has established two indigenous
tree plantations within
the village as well as a gum tree
nursery. He has also donated seedlings
to five schools in the Mutasa
district. He helps out with environmental
commemorations such
as the National Tree Planting Day,
fire awareness campaigns and environmental
awareness meetings for
villagers. Apart from this he takes
care of and monitors the use of wetlands
surrounding the village. The
2014 World Wetlands Day national
commemorations were held in his
village of Domborutinhira. In line
with their concern to prevent deforestation,
Environment Africa are
promoting the use of alternative
energy such as biogas and solar
power and have established demo
units in Guruve and Zvimba.
Environment Africa continues to
work in partnership with Mukuvisi
Woodlands on the Eco-Schools programme
which supports education
and awareness on environmental
issues for school children. They
also work with the Curriculum Development
Unit to develop Environmental
Education from Primary
School level.
For more information see:
www.environmentafrica.org or
call 04 492143