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The Forestry Commission says it has suspended the issuance of firewood permits countrywide due to abuse of the system which has seen about 70 000 hectares of forests being destroyed.

The commission’s director general Mr Abedinico Marufu said the move is meant to protect the country’s forests.

He said the biggest challenge is that the timber poachers are cutting down indigenous trees which take almost 200 years to mature.

Mr Marufu said the Commission realised that if measures are not taken to stop the rampant cutting down of trees, the timber poaching could lead to desertification of some areas.

Individuals allocated farms under the land reform programme are the major culprits as many of them are abusing the firewood permits.

Mr Marufu said the new farmers were cheating by alleging that they are cutting down trees to open up land for crop farming when in fact they are just harvesting timber for sale.

Mr Marufu said selling of firewood for commercial purposes is illegal but that is what many new farmers are doing.

The Forestry Commission and other Government departments have launched a nationwide blitz to arrest firewood and charcoal dealers.

Zimbabwe has been able to preserve its forests and the new farmers should therefore not be allowed to turn the country into a desert just to make a quick buck. The consequences of desertification are too ghastly to contemplate. We therefore want to commend the Forestry Commission for suspending issuance of firewood permits.

The issuing of these permits should only resume after a system has been put in place to ensure controlled harvesting of trees to avoid desertification.

Trees are very key to preservation of the environment hence the need to protect them and as Mr Marufu said, indigenous trees take 200 years to mature yet it takes just minutes to cut down the tree.

People in desert countries like Egypt appreciate the importance of trees more compared to us because we have never suffered the effects of a desert. There have been a lot of educational campaigns on veld fires but little on cutting down of trees.

The effects of veld fires are immediate because the fires destroy grazing which affects livestock hence community leaders have been very active in educating people on the dangers of starting veld fires.

The village heads, councillors and chiefs who have been leading campaigns against starting veld fires, should now come up with ways of policing their respective areas against wood poachers and those starting veld fires.

The new farmers who are just after harvesting firewood should be removed from the land and replaced by productive farmers who produce for the nation.

We want to once again urge authorities to come up with a very tight system to control timber harvesting in order to preserve our natural forests which are an envy of many including tourists.