Conservation Lessons
- GSGC
- Mar 24, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 12
Conservation Lessons: Trees, a School and Four Clubs
After the rains, avocado, pawpaw, Mexican apple, guava, moringa and mango shoots began peeking through the Yombwe family’s compost site at Wayi Wayi Art Gallery in Livingstone, Zambia. The family had buried scraps of their fresh fruit to enrich the red soil and keep compostable matter out of the garbage pit, and months later, a new endeavor unexpectedly emerged.
Youth in the GSGC-sponsored Wayi Wayi Creatives Village girls and boys clubs moved the delicate seedlings to small plastic containers to be nurtured and planted a year later, when the shoots were stronger. Youth were given three containers for any seedlings they discovered at their own homes; some asked for more, having found many.
Nurturing skills varied, but in November, Wayi Wayi Mentors Agness Buya Yombwe, Sunga Mwila and Kangwa Yombwe teamed up with renowned Zambian environmentalist Benjamin Mibenge and put the saplings in the ground at Livingstone Primary School.
“When I look at a tree, I see life, our lives and that of Mother Earth,” Mibenge said recently.
GSGC Mentors understand young people’s future is tied to the health of the planet, and the GSGC community is committed to protecting the environment. Mentors teach youth the importance of being good stewards of nature – land, water, air and animals – and all contribute where possible. Planting trees, for example.
Mentor Agness and her husband, Lawrence Yombwe, know Mibenge because the three are prominent artists. Lawrence paints using traditional motifs, national symbols and natural colors. Agness, the author of two books, explores cultural traditions on canvas and found objects such as seed pods. Mibenge, 75, is a graphic artist and decades-long member of the Wildlife and Environment Conservation Society of Zambia and National Heritage Conservation Commission and a long-time volunteer in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, where the Zambezi River’s Victoria Falls are the main attraction.
In those roles, and for five years as director of trees for Greenpop Zambia, an arm of the South Africa-based environmental organization, Mibenge taught everyone from school children to the Zambian president about the importance of trees. Students dubbed him “Uncle Ben” more than 30 years ago.
“I fell in love with trees.”
Mibenge’s love of trees began when he was a child living with his grandparents along the Kafue River outside Lusaka. Trees provided material for their huts, canoes and paddles and for fires to dry fish and wild meat, stay warm and ward off wild animals.
“I fell in love with trees,” he said. “Like any other living life, a tree eats, breaths, and reproduces. It feeds other lives. It provides us with almost all our needs to keep healthy.”
For decades, Mibenge has encouraged young people to care for the environment, with an emphasis on planting trees and forest protection.
“We must plan for many years to come,” he said. “It’s time to change our attitude and fight what’s wrong.”
Deforestation has been on the rise in Zambia, particularly since 2013, Mibenge said. Without money to buy proper stoves and cooking fuel, people illegally cut trees and burn them down to charcoal, which they sell door to door at cheap prices. According to the Zambian Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, nearly 750,000 acres are lost each year to deforestation thanks, in part, to a heavy reliance on wood fuel. Forests, the ministry said in 2017, provide at least 1.4 million jobs, supporting 60 percent of rural Zambian households.
To bring the point home, Mibenge takes school groups and visitors to illegal burning sites hidden in forests, and he promotes the importance of protecting forests on a radio show called Tree Tuesday. “We discuss tree species and their uses, their importance to wildlife and us, and their relation to climate change,” he said.
He argues to improve charcoal burners, use sawdust for fuel, and make other alternative fuels affordable. But he acknowledges those efforts will require government intervention.
Meanwhile, Mibenge’s hopes are in young people, like those at Livingstone Primary School.
“Enthusiasm was high.”
There, he scouted planting spots on the property. Holes were dug, and compost was added. Wayi Wayi Mentors and club members brought the baby trees. Mibenge went through the three Ws: what species of trees they were planting, where to plant them and why to plant them. Enthusiasm was high among pupils and teachers.
The tree-planting idea grew from two other environmentally based Wayi Wayi club activities: gathering seedlings as members honored a government request to pick up litter once a month, and learning the importance of protecting endangered animals during a trip to the national park.
“As part of our community-building, we focus on the need for recycling, conservation and litter picking,” Mentor Agness said. “We discuss how this impacts health, wildlife and our community, and how individual leadership in this area can encourage others to follow suit.”
Mibenge said he will continue to work with young people as long as he’s around.
“I have been able to carry out lots of environmental education activities with both girls and boys in urban and rural areas,” he said. “I am happy to say that a number of girls right now are becoming educated and doing practical environmental work.”
Lauren Teasdale, Greenpop’s co-founder, said the link between gender and environment is key to determining roles and responsibilities in sustainability and conservation.
“As stewards of natural resources in many cultures and communities, and due to gendered roles of caretaking, girls are a crucial entry point for inter-generational transformation toward more sustainable citizens,” she said in a recent email.
Other GSGC Mentors also emphasize the environment and conservation. South of the Zambezi in Zimbabwe, Tikobane Girls Club and Tikobane Boys Club, which operate in and around Hwange National Park, are guiding youth with education and skills that will better integrate them into society and steer them away from destructive practices such as wildlife poaching.
“If you want people to care about wildlife,” said Mentor Dumisani Moyo, “they must feel that their lives are equally valued.”
