Zim cracks down on illegal miners…. Targets miners in protected areas

The Government has started a process of removing illegal miners in protected areas including national parks and forest estates, a senior official has said, in a move also expected to clear confusion over which areas are deemed protected and those opened for mineral exploitation.

Minister of Environment and Hospitality Industry Nqobizitha Ndlovu told Business Weekly in an interview he was hoping that in the next three to five years, normalcy would have returned in these protected areas.

However, Zimbabwe Miners Federation, a lobby group that represents small scale and artisanal miners, said it would be a difficult process given that most of their members have the permits from the relevant authorities.

Illegal mining as well as agricultural activities have risen sharply over the last decade in Zimbabwe’s national parks and forestry areas, resulting in massive deforestation and land degradation.

In forestry areas, several thousands of hectares have been destroyed by veld fires caused by illegal settlers clearing land for farming.

While occupation of protected areas is largely synonymous with illegal mining activities, of late there were instances where some individuals and companies who were allocated mining concessions on land gazetted for specific commercial activities.

Last year, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development issued grants to prospective gold and diamond miners on land gazetted for commercial timber plantations in Manicaland Province.

While it has been long argued that if a mineral is discovered on land already used for other purposes, mining takes precedence, meaning the owner of such land might be removed.

However, with regards to gazetted land, its use can’t be changed unless the President gives consent.

“Our attitude is really against mining and other illegal activities in the protected areas,” Ndlovu said. “There is a lot of to mine outside protected areas.

“What we are now doing is to identify areas where there is illegal mining; we are rounding those areas off. We want to make sure that in the next three to five years, we would have eliminated miners in protected areas.

“In short, what we are saying is do mining everywhere else but not in protected areas.”

Around the plantations, particularly in eastern Manicaland ,there had been an increase in people occupying land for illegal gold mining.

Illegal settling has also affected local forest management practices, including fire protection, a development that has seen huge tracts of estates destroyed by wild fires.

ZMC spokesperson Dosman Mangisi, confirmed that some of their members were operating in the national parks “but their papers are in order.”

“These people are all over and I think the conversation should be around how to formalise their operations,” said Mangisi. “To a certain extent, these people can be classified as illegal miners but not forgetting that some have the permits from authorities.”

No comment could be obtained from Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Environmentalist says it is time the government should move on to stop illegal activities in the protected areas.

“Illegal commercial activities particularly mining and farming have been going on for many years and the response from the government and state agencies has not been encouraging,” said Dzvairo, environmentalist with a local non-profit organisation involved in sustainable afforestration.

Some observers say the invasion of protected areas by people engaged in these illegal activities often results in organised crimes such as murders, rape and wildlife poaching and requires stronger intervention by the state.–ebusinessweekly.c.zw