About this Parachute
Story
As MAYA, our running theme "the enemy at home" aptly captures what we as MAYA-ZIMBABWE feel as a major adversary of Mother Nature that is big multinationals especially in the extractive sector like mining and fossil fuels. We also believe government as the main stockholder ,enabler and policy maker must also show leadership and political will big business especially in mining and extractive sect, manufacturing and chemical industries whom we consider as the ‘real enemy at home.” Our parachute and banner also highlight the negative effects of poor and skewed government policy framework especially regarding renewable energy sources which has led to electricity shortages which in turn caused untold destruction of forests and trees as urbanites turned to firewood and coal as alternative sources of energy. Further our government through what it termed the land reform programme from 2002 has resulted in the wanton destruction of huge forests and plantations nearing 100000 hectares in Manicaland (Mutare is the capital city of Manicaland province). This has had a huge negative impact on the environment. Siltation and drying up of rivers and other water bodies, deaths of animals, increased human-wildlife conflict, disappearance of fauna and flora, increased hunger and poverty as climate change takes its toll on agriculture and livelihoods. This is our story. As MAYA we are ready to play our role in positive actions that will save mother earth. The future is now rather than later.
CCL Mutare Zimbabwe managed to create one large parachutes and one three metre banner. Our running theme "the enemy at home" aptly captures what we as CCL-ZIMBABWE feel as a major adversary of mother nature ..that is big multinationals especially in the extractive sector like mining and fossil fuels. We also believe government as the policy maker,enabler and must also play "policeman " and guard of the environment forms one of that enemy at home. Our parachute and banner also highlight the negative effects of poor and skewed government policy framework especially regarding renewable energy sources which has led to electricity shortages which in turn caused untold destruction of forests and trees as urbanites turned to firewood and coal as alternative sources of energy. Further our government through what it termed the land reform programme from 2002 has resulted in the wanton destruction of huge forests and plantations nearing 100000 hectares in manicaland (Mutare is the capital city of manicaland province). This has had a huge negative impact on the environment. Siltation and drying up of rivers and other water bodies, deaths of animals, increased human-wildlife conflict,disappearance of fauna and flora,increased hunger and poverty as climate change takes its toll on agriculture and livelihoods. This is our story. As CCL Zimbabwe we are ready to play our role in positive actions that will save mother earth.
Sustainable Actions in this Community
The Ministry of Education demanded that MAYA produce registration papers , then sign Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry upon which MAYA will get approval to work directly with schools and other government organs., MAYA then worked with local school children after school for the parachute project which was a wonderful and enriching experience for MAYA and the kids involved. Maya had five Lobby meetings on the environment local authorities like Mutare City Council , Chipinge town council and Mutare Rural District councils who after intense lobbying have agreed to incorporate MAYA as a technical partner on the environment and climate change thematic committees, which is an achievement on its own. MAYA planted 200 trees on the 6th of December, 2018, at Murahwa Hills and Nyamauru primary schools as we kick started the national tree planting season. MAYA has earmarked to plant 5000 trees by June 2019. MAYA has acquired 1400 plants which will be planted by February 2019. By March 2019, MAYA should have reached the 5000 plants benchmark for the year that we set for ourselves. MAYA also partnered with Mutare city council during the tree planting week where we donated a further 100 plants to the Mayor. Maya networked with Zimbabwe Council of Churches on peace building and conflict resolution, an event which was attended by 30 youths from MAYA. -- Citizen Climate Lobby (CCL) Mutare Chapter, Mother Earth Project International in partnership with Manica Youth Assembly (MAYA) would like to embark on a massive tree planting project to be able to replant trees in commemoration of the Zimbabwe National Tree Planting Day set for first week of December of every year. This project has a capacity to be replicated every year towards the planting of trees. We have been lobbying the local authority to give MAYA a mountain which we will adopt and plant trees and showcase as a demonstration of good practice in preserving trees. The date is set as a national tree plant day for Zimbabwe. Mutare in Manicaland Province is under severe threat of deforestation as a result of shortage of alternative means of energy besides the use of electricity. Residents do not find anything wrong with cutting down trees as this is what they can afford to use for cooking and other domestic uses in their homes. In Zimbabwe cutting down of trees is the major cause of deforestation. Reforestation is the way to go if this problem is to be combated. Tree planting season in Zimbabwe runs from the start of the rains around October up to April the next year. Climate change and changing of seasons has caused untold suffering to communities and governments around the world. Without the replacing of trees, there is going to be more floods, more heat resulting into more damages and also the changes in dates for raining water for agriculture. The governments including Zimbabwe should be proactive and also help communities to mitigate against climate change effects. Trees are a source of life and the communities around Mutare have benefited much from the beauty as well as the energy especially from dried trees. The use of other sources like solar and wind has not been used around the City despite the fact that we are near the Mozambican boarder where we get perennial wind which can be used to produce alternative sources of energy. Also water resources around can also be used to produce electricity which is affordable to the locals than to rely on electricity power from the national grid which is expensive. The communities around Mutare resort to cutting down of trees and this has resulted in massive deforestation which needs to be addressed through reforestation. Apart from the tree planting exercises, there also need to capacitate communities on a weekly basis through community discussion forums to educate and empower communities on the need for preserving the trees as they are life. There is a great potential if all organisations around Mutare which will be led by MAYA, CCL and the local authorities as they have a duty to preserve the local resources but they are overwhelmed and are failing to cope with the challenges. These stakeholders then need to campaign for tree planting every year and replace the trees that are being cut down by residents without putting into consideration the effects of climate change and also destructive movement of top soil necessary for agriculture. The community need to be capacitated at all cost to deal with deforestation wherever they are. We therefore need resources for producing banners and logos which we will use for the massive campaign. We are in need of resources to print t-shirts, download and print logos and make banners for the event so that the communities around Mutare are sensitised by the messages. MAYA has in the past done a deforestation campaign and managed to plant trees and produce parachutes that were used as an awareness campaign in partnership with Mother Earth International. We still need to plant more trees and produce more parachutes and this could be another avenue to be pursued in putting reforestation project for the national tree planting activities. MAYA’s registration will be out by this Friday.