About Us

Climate Change and global warming is a world pandemic  which is affecting every nation across the globe.  Part of this climate change is due to serious loss of forest cover on planet earth.

Zimbabwe has not been spared from this forest loss   due to deforestation and land degradation which is an issue of major concern. The Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe carried out a survey and released a figure of 330,000 Hectares as  an average  forest lost  annually in Zimbabwe.  This  is  mainly due to human activity which  range from land clearance for agricultural purposes, wood for fuel energy use and a number of  other unsustainable forest land use practises.

Across the landscape of Zimbabwe and in particular in the Kariba REDD+ project, covering 785,000 ha, (Binga, Nyaminyami, Hurungwe and Mbire Districts), deforestation is caused mainly by shifting agriculture as well as for fuel energy.  

A typical example on fuel energy use in the Kariba REDD+ project area is Chitsungo Mission Hospital in Mbire District.  The referral hospital catering for 13 statelite clinics in the district used to consume  over 3 tons of firewood every week for their energy use. The Kariba REDD+ Project intervened by constructing  a 20cubic biogas digester to avert this disaster. This came as a great relief for the institution on energy provision and at the same time saving forest loss due to energy needs.

An example on agricultural practices which lead to forest loss is Shifting Agriculture. With this practice , farmers would till the land and when it is no longer fertile and  productive enough, they abandon it and clear new fertile virgin land.

The Kariba REDD+ project introduced Climate Smart Agriculture (CF – Conservation farming) to avoid shifting agricultural practices. CF  enables farmers to  productively utilise small pieces of land but still realise good yields in comparison to conventional methods of farming. Farmers are taught sustainable farming methods  which do not require clearing large tracts of land  or shifting each time a farmer thinks land is no longer fertile and productive enough. This has led to the avoidance of massive deforestation and land degradation. 

The  Kariba REDD+ project’s main objective is to mitigate this  deforestation and land degradation catastrophe. A  baseline survey  on deforestation and land degradation  was carried out. This resulted in various project activities  being implemented to reduce and mitigate the deforestation activities thereby resulting in emissions reductions. These emission reductions  are  quantified and sold as carbon credits. The proceeds are invested back into the project area to sustain various projects which help mitigate climate change effects.

Carbon Green Africa and its  associate partners has implemented a first of its kind project model that works in Zimbabwe and achieves our aims of both successful conservation projects and strong financial returns for all stakeholders while at the same time  contributing to the maintenance of the environment and community enrichment. Without the involvement, acceptance and adoption  by the communities,  the project success will be limited, as such our communities are the critical stockholder to this project. 

The Kariba REDD+ Project has been previously registered under VERA’s VCS & CCB at the Gold Level standard which places a particular emphasis on community participation and the benefits they receive  as well as the  biodiversity conservation rewards. It is however critical to note  that the project is now in the process of revalidation by a different regulator so as to get new ideas to the project.