World Vision Zambia with support from the Australian government, donates 300 bicycles to FMNR Champions

With support from the Australian Government, World Vision Zambia recently distributed 300 bicycles to volunteers supporting the Sustainable Land Restoration Project (SLaR). Through its regreening agenda, SLaR is restoring 150 hectares of land in Katete, Sinda, and Chibombo districts.

The Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) Champions under the SLaR Project will use bicycles to monitor the vast project sites.

Rehab Banda is one of the volunteers supervising six communal forests and twenty-seven lead farmers who are working hard to regenerate over two hundred and eighty hectares of land in Katete District.

"It was difficult to move around to check on how lead farmers and headmen are leading the FMNR movement because of the long distances", says Rahab.  

Speaking at the handover event, the World Vision Zambia Associate Director for Grant Management thanked the FMNR champions for volunteering and accepting this noble task of spearheading the regeneration of degraded lands in their communities.

"I am confident that the champions will effectively use the bicycles for the intended purpose and foster the desired change in communities to mitigate the effects of climate change and enhance the adaptive capacity of communities in the project area," said Ms. Ngoma.

Meanwhile, the Zambian government representative, Katete District Commissioner Jolice Chisangu, commended World Vision for establishing structures in close collaboration with relevant government line ministries and traditional leadership to counter land degradation in Zambia's Katete, Sinda and Chibombo districts.

The Civic Leader also thanked the traditional leadership in the three districts for protecting the environment by formulating and enacting by-laws that deter community members from indiscriminately cutting down vegetation.

The SLaR project has recorded significant progress in the past year of implementation by securing over 78,000 hectares of land under protection in the three districts.

SLaR is a natural regeneration project based on the Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) model. Its objective is to regenerate 150,000 hectares of land through direct programming and organic spread. FMNR is based on three basic principles: selecting, protecting, and pruning indigenous tree species to regenerate depleted land masses.