Mutare’s illustrious natural resource treasure, Christmas Pass, is under siege from persistent wood poachers and land developers, raising fears of acute climate change disasters as well as the complete loss of its pastime magnificent, lush green forests, The Weekly can reveal.
The Christmas Pass is traditionally known to give a panoramic view of the city of Mutare from the mountain-top topography, compelling many travellers to stop near the city water reservoirs and have a gaze of the city in a valley. However, lately there has been serious desecration of the natural vegetation around it.
The development on Wednesday prompted the holding of a crisis meeting in Mutare by stakeholders like the Forestry Commission, Mutare City Council, Environmental Management Agency (EMA), residents’ associations, police and civic society organisations which included the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG).
The meeting was held in the civic centre’s council chamber.
Friends of Vumba and the Mutare River Rehabilitation organisation led by Lynne James also attended the crucial indaba.
Tom Phillip, the Manicaland provincial Forestry Commission head shared photos of how Christmas Pass looked like in the last decade and how it is now.
The past photo depicted a Christmas Pass densely populated with trees and green pastures while the present one showed exactly the opposite- a near barren swathe of land with spacious trees as well as manmade strips of pathways created by wood poachers and a some residential buildings sprouting up.
Phillip explained that in its current state, the Christmas Pass could discharge mud slides into the meandering highway. Any occurrence of heavy rains can literally block the passage that leads in and out of Mutare.
“The road strips that have been created by the wood poachers as they drag logs to the main road can also see water from heavy rains flowing along them downwards which could spark a very big disaster,” he said, adding:
“The iconic Christmas Pass is under serious threat due to human activity. The Pass is under siege. We need to do something.”
In the event of mudslides or rock falls into the Christmas Pass highway, transit haulage trucks using the Beira Corridor will be the most affected.
This is mainly because, the Forbes Border post in Mutare is the quickest gateway to the Indian Ocean, given that the port of Beira in Mozambique is just 300km away from the eastern border city.
The Beira Corridor is one of Southern Africa’s main transport routes that links Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC and Mozambique to the port of Beira on the Indian Ocean. The link is for both road and rail networks.
The Wednesday crisis meeting in Mutare came out with two resolutions. The first one was the creation of an action group that comprises EMA, Forestry Commission and police to superintend over the protection of Christmas Pass against the ongoing mass deforestation.
The second resolution was holding a follow-up meeting to strategize around the promotion of alternative energy sources in Mutare such as sawdust.
CNRG has over the past years advocated for the protection of natural resources such as the Christmas Pass. However for any initiative to succeed, the causal factors need to be understood and alternatives with buy-in from the local population introduced.
The organisation has been consistent in advocating for climate resilient communities that use indigenous knowledge systems to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. CNRG is nevertheless encouraged by the multi-stakeholder approach to the Christmas Pass deforestation challenge.
CNRG director Farai Maguwu in an interview regarding the desecration of the Christmas Pass said:
The problem has been growing with each passing year owing to erratic electricity supply and extremely high electricity costs which is creating a booming demand for firewood. High unemployment rate in the city is also resulting in many people turning to illegal activities such as rampant cutting down of trees for firewood for resell. The other problem is allocation of residential stands in Christmas Pass. Whether its greediness on the part of authorities or it has always been the plan to turn Christmas Pass into a residential area remain unclear but the development is extremely worrying.
CNRG proposes the following to solve the Christmas Pass menace:
Stop allocating residential stands in Christmas Pass
Collaboration between ZRP, EMA, Mutasa RDC and Mutare City Council for 24-hour surveillance