Where are you: Home News December 2002

December 2002 Newsletter

From The Director’s Desk

The Mahuwe Project
The Mahuwe Project seeks to assist the people of Ward 7 (Mahuwe), Guruve District to develop an improved management system for their livestock feed resources. The project which started in 1999, is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and is scheduled to end in November 2003. The project team comprises elected representatives of Ward 7, including the Ward Councillor, Mr. Rupiya; Dr. Tim Lynam, Project Leader; Mr. Frank Chinembiri, Livestock Specialist and Mr. Bright Mombeshora, Farming Systems Specialist.
The three most important management goals that are guiding the Mahuwe Project are:

• To conserve the Ward's natural, grazing and browse resources
  
• Residents to appreciate the importance of wise use of natural resources to benefit future generations
  
• For future generations to learn from these resources

What has been achieved?

The residents of Mahuwe clearly identified the need to re-plan their land use system. Major problems that they were facing included the cultivation of grazing areas and the resulting restricted access to Makomo grazing areas. It was agreed that the Mahuwe Project Team would assist to re-plan the Ward's land use. To this end workshops were held and farmers mapped out the strategies and mechanisms to be followed in the land use re-planning exercise.

• The Mahuwe Project Team developed a land type map, which was used to identify the amount and location of land in the three most important suitability classes: arable, grazing and residential land.
  
• The Project Team has identified a number of feasible management options that are expected to improve the chances of there being sufficient grazing resources in the Ward though a series of workshops.
• The three Sabukus in the ward have agreed on their area boundaries except for one section where a tentative boundary was agreed upon. Unplanned and illegal settlement in the Ward has stopped under the leadership of legitimate Sabukus through marking their areas and implementation of the land use plan.

Next Steps….

There are several important steps that the Project Team now has to take:

• Firstly the improvements to the management of the vegetation resources of Ward 7 that were identified by the Project Team need to be refined and the best of these selected for implementation. This process will be coupled with the development and implementation of a monitoring system that will enable the people of Ward 7 to easily identify when their grazing resources are insufficient.
• Secondly the Project team needs to review what has been achieved so far and ensure that current activities are consistent with the overall goals of the people of Ward 7.

Over the next few months the Mahuwe Project Team will be holding a number of meetings to ensure that these two activities are successfully implemented.

For more information on the project please contact Dr T. Lynam of Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel. (263)4-302603, Fax: (263)4-332853. Email: tlynam@science.uz.ac.zw

Economic Analysis Of Fuelwood Saving Technologies And Systems In ProBEC Supported BEC Demonstration Projects

The Institute carried out an economic analysis of Fuel Saving Technologies and Syetems introduced by the Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation in Southern Africa (ProBEC) initiative. The initiative is funded by the GTZ. The aim of the economic assessment was to identify, attach value and compare the costs and benefits of adopting biomass energy saving stoves (mudstoves) to both households and producers of the stoves in Hurungwe district. Data was collected through a household survey and used for the economic analysis.

Results

The net benefits that accrue to the households from the use of improved stoves are very high and compare favourably with other household budget items. Seven economic ratios that were calculated to quantify the economic incentives derived by the users of improved stoves revealed:

• A Payback Period for the use of the mud stove of only 7 days, which indicates that households are likely to adopt these stoves as benefits are realized sooner rather than later.
• A high and positive total Net Benefit.
• A Rate of Return (net benefit/cost ratio) where the Net Benefit is 12 times the total cost associated with the stove during its lifespan.
• A Ratio of Net Benefit of Improved Stove to Expenditure on Food and Groceries where net savings that result from the use of the stoves are about a quarter of household expenditure on food and other groceries.
• A Total Annual Cost of Cooking with Electricity as an alternative energy source which is a significant proportion of the household budget.
• A Net Present Value which is high and positive indicating that households are likely to be willing to adopt mud stoves.
• A Dynamic Rate of Return indicating that the discounted net benefit is over 100 times more than the initial investment cost.

All the calculated ratios suggest very high incentives for the households in Hurungwe to adopt the improved mud stoves. This explains why the stoves have generated a lot of interest in the pilot areas. Most households surveyed welcomed efforts by the ProBEC initiative to introduce firewood saving stoves as a way of reducing time spent collecting firewood, and subsequently of conserving the resource. The improved stoves were described as a brilliant idea as among other things, they use very small amounts of firewood, and also shorten time spent preparing food.

From the stove promoters' point of view however results indicate that the current price being charged for building a stove, is not viable. They felt that the minimum price should be increased because they now have to walk long distances to get to households who require their services and in some instances they may require to use buses. The analysis done to estimate incentives for households using mud stoves suggests that even if the price of the stoves was to match the higher prices demanded by the stove promoters, this could still be acceptable to users as the net benefits still remain positive and significant.

Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - Gorongosa-Marromeu Transect, Northern Sofala Province, Mozambique - SAfMA-GM

The SAfMA-GM project is a collaborative assessment of the linkages between key ecosystem services and human well being in Northern Sofala Province, Mozambique. The collaboration, between the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the National Directorate of Conservation Areas (DNAC) seeks to develop the capacity of Mozambicans to conduct similar assessments whilst providing useful information to decision-makers.

The assessment will be conducted at several scales and will cut across key sectors of the economy of northern Sofala. Assessments will be conducted at scales that range from local communities through large corporations and non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) to District and Provincial government whilst simultaneously addressing issues of food, forestry, water and conservation. A major challenge will be integration across these scales and at the same time across ecosystem services. To achieve this integration the SAfMA-GM team will develop integrating conceptual models and will seek to integrate the scenarios it develops at each level. This will enable decision-makers to explicitly recognise the trade-offs that will be made at each decision point.

The SAfMA-GM team will engage key decision-makers at each of these scales and across each of these sectors to ensure that the results of the assessment are of direct relevance to management and policy in Northern Sofala and Mozambique.

Policy and user relevance will be ensured through the guidance of a User Advisory Group (UAG) drawn from relevant government institutions, NGO's as well as the private sector. The UAG will play an important role in transmitting the findings of the assessment to the relevant policy makers and practitioners.

The final outputs of the assessment are targeted at the levels of society and government directly involved in the use and management of the goods and services addressed by the assessment. This includes the local communities, all levels of the relevant government institutions, the private sector and NGO's.

A major objective of the SAfMA team is capacity building within Mozambique to undertake similar assessments. To this end staff of the University of Eduardo Mondlane will co-ordinate the engagement of young scientists from their institution to work on the assessment.

The SAfMA-GM assessment will be conducted in the Sofala Province districts of Muanza, Cheringoma, Gorongosa, Dondo, Nhamatanda, Marromeu and Caia. Community level assessments have already been initiated in Gorongosa and Maunza Districts and three local level scenarios have been developed in Gorongosa District.

Outputs and Activities

The main outputs to be generated are scenarios that will describe the future up to 2030 in relation to food, fuel wood, water and conservation. These will be built on a careful analysis of current conditions and trends. Working with decision-makers at each scale, the assessment will identify intervention options that will be robust in whatever projections that emerge from the scenario analyses. The final outputs will therefore, include assessments of the current condition and trends in the supply and demand of the core ecosystem services as well as assessments of plausible future supply and demand scenarios. Coupled to these outputs will be assessments of robust policy or management strategies that will enhance beneficial trends or mitigate undesirable trends in the supply of ecosystem services.

The assessment will run over the period October 2002 to December 2003.

For more information on this project contact Tim Lynam, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel. (263)4-302603, Fax: (263)4-332853. Email: tlynam@science.uz.ac.zw