Jambezi River Restoration

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

An Overview Of Our Solution

Chief Shana and the elders can remember when the Jambezi River used to flow above ground all year from December to December. There were crocodiles in the river. People could go fishing at any time of year. For the last 30 years the river has flooded in the rainy season and then is a dry sandy river bed. The only source of water for livestock at the end of the dry season (September, October, November is a dam that was constructed in ?. This dam is now drying up and the community have been looking for solutions.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Other

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Freshwater

Oceans/Coasts

Population impacted

3300 people

Size of agricultural area

Jambezi & Ntiba River Catchment

Production quantity

Production quantity (ex. 100 kilos): Livestock, (cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys) and Crops

People employed

It is voluntary movement so there are no employees

Describe your solution

Lead by example. Viyani used to burn his stover every year in preparation for the following cropping season. 4 years ago he stopped burning and stopped ploughing and now uses a hoe to prepare planting stations. If he is delayed in planting he also uses a dibble stick. Last yaer even in a drought year his yield was larger than it has been for years previously. We Have invested in our own knowledge by look, learn and apply visits to other farmers and communities. We continue to learn by doing. We invite experienced people whom we trust to come to the community to share knowledge and continue to inspire the change.

Describe your implementation

Continuously. Sharing the information and asking questions at the community meetings.. visiting individual and influential farmers in the area to build relationships and share experiences. Show people what is happening in my own cropfields and share how the yield improved even last year in the drought. This is An ongoing process. People are lazy and it takes time for everyone to start moving together sometimes. I have many people asking me to other villages especially in the drought years to assist in how they can also start implementing. There are now 5 villages that are starting to move together and create Grazing plans and follow them. The communities start with a wet season Grazing plan. We have been assisted in the purchase of mobile overnight Kraal. Ntiba village has been using the Kraal now for the last 6 months. This is An ongoing process. People are lazy and it takes time for everyone to start moving together sometimes. I have many people asking me to other villages especially in the drought years to assist in how they can also start implementing. There are now 5 villages that are starting to move together and create Grazing plans and follow them. The communities start with a wet season Grazing plan. We have been assisted in the purchase of mobile overnight Kraal. Ntiba village has been using the Kraal now for the last 6 months. We are using the fundamental principles of 4 processes to inspire the change in management of the entire catchment area. 1. Decision making together: permaculture/ground cover farming/ farming with nature for profit/holistic management/create a common vision of 100% ground cover incrop fields and Grazing areas 2. Implementation support and management 3. Community Mobilization 4. Learning by doing/ Action learning/Experiential Learning people are resistant to new ideas and people are lazy. Seeing is believing. When people have seen something they believe that they can do it.

External connections

The traditional leadership and Government leadership, agricultural extension services both veterinary forestry and crop production teams are instrumental in everyone working together towards a common vision of the Jambezi River Flowing above ground again all year round. Africa Center for Holistic Management, on the Dimbangombe Ranch has been instrumental in creating a working example that the village & government leaders have visited. When people see the grass and the river there they get very excited that this is possible in their own areas. Grassroots Trust in Zambia and Tlhokomela Mmu in South Africa & Maphaneni Ranch with Trek petroleum have all been locations where we have been able to learn more and apply the learning in our own area. Catch Rain is a movement that we are part of to share knowledge and inspiration between communities that are at various levels of implementation and application of the knowledge in their areas. Our vision is to restore our land and put water back in the Jambezi River. There are examples on private lands where the land has been restored but we need to create an example in a communal setting so other communities can believe that they can do it too if they wish to. Through individual connections we can have influence over policies but as we are in early stages of implementing and continuously learning this will be an exciting part of what we can do together.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

The challenge is that droughts are more severe e/year. There's less food available for livestock & wildlife. Crop yields have been getting worse bc drought & poor soil management. The river used to flow above ground all year round. It is now dry and livestock have to walk far for water. There used to be good biodiversity with crocodiles, lions, Impala, buffalo, zebra and many other species. There are very few left. Past and existing agricultural practices in crop fields and Grazing areas have reduced the ability of the soil to hold the Rain water. Crop yields have been steadily going down. Droughts are becoming more frequent. There is high water loss from evaporation from bare soils throughout the dry season. Bare capped soils result in high rain water runoff rates and little soaks into the soil to feed the grasses, crops and trees all year. The perennial grasslands are now replaced by annual grasses so livestock and wildlife nutrition at the end of the dry season is bad

Describe the context in which you are operating

Traditional Leadership is headed by Chief Shana. The Chief Shana area Encompasses a large part of the Matetsi River catchment. Decision making for management of the landscape is complex in the communal setting. Change in management of the Grazing areas and crop fields requires the whole community to be involved, aware and understand the fundamental principles of how to keep water in the soil. The government leadership is represented by elected council Lora who are part of the Hwange Rural District Council.Many people in the communities rely on food aid from international donors due to poor crop production. The river flows only during the rainy season. Some households living near to the river have dug wells so that they can access water for all year round nutrition gardens. There are boreholes for human consumption, some of these in dry years have started having reduced water production (BH 45 for the first time dried up in October 2016). Matabeleland North is in natural region 5. Rainfall average is +/-600mm per year. Ability for families to produce enough food is related to farming practices. Matabeleland North is in natural region 5. Rainfall average is +/-600mm per year. Ability for families to produce enough food is related to farming practices. Mostly the community consists of communal subsistence farmers, many households there is financial support from family members working in towns, there is little formal employment.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Crop field: planted many more different species including tree species that extend the production of the land area to produce nutrition for people, livestock and wildlife even into the dry season. This year Viyani had a guineafowl nesting in his crop field. Grazing area: there is more ground Cover as we are able to grow more grass. Because all livestock are together during the growing season we expect the production to increase in the males and females come into contact more frequently. When the livestock is protected all year round by following a Grazing plan and being in a Mobile overnight kraal then the lions are also protected. The loss of livestock to lions is reduced so they become less persecuted. As the Jambezi & Ntiba River starts to have above ground water available throughout the year further upstream it will open up more areas for livestock and wildlife to be able to grow.

Language(s)

English

Water

Over time we expect the water situation to not be a challenge as we put more water into the ground by creating more ground cover.

Food Security/Nutrition

Last year in the dry season the nutrition garden was broken into by livestock and the banana trees and pigeon peas were eaten so we had no green relish for about a month. When all the livestock start following a plan then this is less likely to happen so nutrition of people and food security will improve.

Economic/Sustainable Development

With one large livestock herd our management can improve and we can use economies of scale to purchase and treat the livestock for routine vaccinations. As we learn how to implement together there is the possibility that there will be employment for youths that are wanting to herd the livestock.

Climate

As there is more ground cover on the soil and we grow more grass we take carbon out of the atmosphere using photosynthesis and put it safely into the soil. As the carbon in the soil increases we increase the amount of water in the soil. The increase in ground cover brings down the surface temperature of the soil in the hot months so it will become less hot over time as more and more land is covered. We can have an impact to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Sustainability

Market based revenue. Diversion of existing revenues in the local economy to improve the revenue streams from all the land under management.

Return on investment

The largest investment has been time and energy. Material investment has been in the form of airtime (approx USD30 per month depending on availability of finances) to assist in communications, a cellphone (USD100) that is whatsapp enabled to be able to connect with others and receive the inspiration required to continue the work ‘pro bono’, 3 mobile electric Kraal valued at (USD30000 As this is a work in progress and we are learning along the way we have not quantified exactly this information as it requires information. We are working on. Creating a simple method that can be duplicated by any other community to quantify this return on investment.

Entrant Image

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

PEOPLE need to Make a decision that you want to restore the land and rivers. VISIT another location that has success in implementing or INVITE a person with the experience to build knowledge and inspire others to believe that it is possible. INSPIRE people to start asking the right questions and learning by doing and visiting others that have applied the knowledge so we can learn from them. Has it been done before? Yes. There are examples on commercial ranches of rivers that have started flowing when they have not flowed for 30 years…. We want to show that this is possible in a communal setting also. When there are results of groups of individuals within a communal setting that have created the organizational structures and bylaws to implement successfully over a 5-10 year period it will be easy to replicate. The changes in the crop production, livestock production & grasslands and river will speak for themselves.

Overview