Forestry

The growing, management and use of trees.

• importance of trees
• Source of firewood
• Source of foreign currency
• Medicinal purposes
Ecological importance of trees
• Prevent soil erosion
• Increase humidity in the atmosphere thus regulating the
temperatures and contributes to the rainfall received in an area
• Provide a variety of organisms with habitats
• Improve soil fertility
• Conserve the soil
• Conserve water
• Remove carbon dioxide and adds oxygen to the atmosphere
Cultural importance of trees
• Provide people with fruits, edible leaves and roots
• Provide shade for people and animals
• Traditional rituals done under some trees
• Used as indicators of the characteristics of soil such as depth,
drainage and water logged
Economic importance of trees
• Creates employment
• Provides raw materials for industries
• Communities benefit by making artifacts and wood carvings from
forest plants
• Mopani worms, harurwa are harvested from plants adding nutrition
and protein to the people’s diet and sold for money
Classification of forests
• Indigenous forests ———forests with trees that originate from
Zimbabwe
• Exotic forests—– forests with trees originating from outside
Zimbabwe
• Chirinda in chipinge is comprised of indigenous trees while the
Eastern Highlands mountainous belt from Nyanja to Chimanimani
concentrates on growing exotic trees
Exotic and indigenous trees
Exotic trees
• Grow very fast
• Provide long poles
• Easy to process into timber
Indigenous trees
• They do not grow straight to
produce long poles
• They take a long time to mature
• They are restricted in areas of
growth since they are soil and
temperature specific