Burning our future: In Mumbwa GMA trees are disappearing, fast
Cut trees ready to be burnt into charcoal. Pictures: Kellie Bocxe Gertrude Mwimba. A man ploughs a new field. Boys sit on fresh logs in the Mumbwa GMA. A man stands on a giant charcoal kiln measuring 40m, in the Mumbwa GMA. JACK ZIMBA WE HAD only driven a few hundred metres inside the Mumbwa Game Management Area (GMA), branching off from the M9, the road that leads to Mongu, when we found the first evidence of the destruction – a large charcoal kiln. When our vehicle came to a stop, a man and two young boys making the kiln took to their heels, disappearing behind the tall trees. Kennedy, one of the game rangers escorting us, counted about 50 fresh stumps of the mutondo tree around the kiln. He wagged his head, more in frustration than in disbelief. The game ranger has now become accustomed to such scenes in this protected swath of forest, which also acts as a buffer zone for the country’s largest wildlife sanctuary – the Kafue National Park, which occupies 22,400km/sq