Zimbabwe destroying up to 1 million acres of trees a year

Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe, which is in the grip of worsening power shortages, is destroying up to 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) of forest each year, official media reported Thursday. The electricity cuts and a lack of tight surveillance by the authorities has seen tree-felling increase by up to 100 per cent in the last two years, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said. Zimbabwe is suffering from chronic power shortages, with suburbs in most towns and cities going for up to 15 hours a day without electricity. Two years ago the country was losing between 150,000 and 200,000 hectares of woodland each year, but the figure has since doubled, the Herald said. "We are losing our forests at an appalling rate," Abednigo Marufu of the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe said. "People are going into the rural areas, protected areas and those pieces of land that are still to be allocated under the land redistribution exercise," Marufu said. He said the deforestation had worsened since extended power cuts were introduced earlier this year to save energy. Many city dwellers now have to cook on open fires, and firewood sales are brisk. In May, Zimbabwe was controversially elected to the chair of the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development. The move came despite the increase in poaching and environmental destruction since President Robert Mugabe's government began seizing white-owned land seven years ago for redistribution to new black farmers. An editorial in the Herald Thursday said Zimbabwe's power shortages should be declared a national disaster. Three fertilizer firms were this week reported to have closed down due to power shortages, threatening future crop yields in the country, which is already facing massive shortfalls of food. Experts have also predicted this year's wheat harvest is likely to be the worst in seven years due to erratic power supplies that disrupted irrigation and damaged pumps.