Melinda Kusemachibi
Approximately 4 hectares (ha) of alien species lantana camara has been cleared at the Great Zimbabwe National Monuments as it had been damaging the monuments, Great Zimbabwe Regional Director Lovemore Mandima has confirmed.
Speaking during a press tour of the American Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) project at Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site held on April 28 2022, Mandima said they had so far cleared 4 ha of lantana camara.
“We have cleared 4 ha of lantana camara on the area. In this project we focused on the dry walls and how best can we conserve them so that people will appreciate the various components of the monuments which were restored. We are also focusing on the removal of lantana camara as it is an invasive species that we do not need on such world heritage sites and we are trying to remove them. We may not really eradicate them but we are putting more effort to remove them as to make our site fit.
“Lastly we are monitoring the monuments. We have been basically monitoring it manually to check if the stones are moving because of the environment so we wanted to install the electric monitoring system such that we can use manual and electronic,” said Mandima.
Archeologist at the site Dr Tawanda Mukwende said that all institutions are supposed to engage with stakeholders to clear up lantana camara.
“The Forestry Commission and Ministry of Environment declared it an unwanted species, all institutions or people are supposed to carry out control mechanisms to ensure the removal of lantana from their specific environs and we have so far removed 4 ha of area covering lantana camara. As National and Monuments of Zimbabwe we are working together with the World Monument Funds who are sponsors together with the Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation in trying to control this lantana here in particular areas in Zimbabwe,” said Dr Mukwende.
Conservation Consultant to World Monuments Simon Warrack said that the management team had been very helpful in clearing lantana camara.
“Uprooting lantana camara, we see it as a way of destroying it as we apply herbicides called Caputi to the stems which had been cut. The management team is very helpful in destroying lantana camara as we coordinate and come up with an effective plan,” said Warrack.
In Zimbabwe, climate change and invasive alien plant species are among the top threats to the ecosystem and Masvingo province has not been spared either.
Invasive alien species are plants that are introduced in an environment where they are not normal.
Statistics released by Environmental Management Agency (EMA) Masvingo province shows that an estimate of 2473.17 ha of land has been affected by Lantana Camara in the province.
The dominance of Lantana Camara affects ecosystems’ equilibrium which is important in the fight against climate change effects.
