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A small contribution making a huge impact

Restoring degraded land in the Limpopo basin

By IW:LEARN

August 28^th, 2025

In the sun-scorched scenery of Ward 14 in Nhlamba Village, nestled in the Gwanda District of Zimbabwe, a quiet revolution is literally taking root.

Leading the charge is Ishmael Ndlovu, Chairperson of the Ward 14 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), who is transforming his community into a beacon of hope within the Limpopo River Basin (LRB)—a region grappling with severe land degradation.

Excessive land degradation in the basin has led to a reduction in ecosystem productivity, widespread poverty, and a poor health status among the basin's population.

A small contribution making a huge impact

“Some of the extractive companies operating in our community have destroyed our land, but we will remain resolute,”

Ndlovu said in his native Ndebele language.

“We have now come together as a community to restore what we can because this land is not just a resource to us, it is our only home.”

Ndlovu said that significant progress has been made in catalysing restoration and reclaiming degraded land at the Rendo Gully Reclamation zone. This has been possible with support from Dabane Trust, the local partner spearheading the implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) activities in Zimbabwe under the GEF-funded project “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin.”

He noted that it is pleasing to see that women and youth are leading the SLM initiatives, demonstrating their important role in sustainable development.

“We have so far managed to build erosion control barriers such as infiltration pits and half-moons, planted trees, including indigenous acacia trees, as well as revived traditional conservation practices that had faded over time.”

said Ndlovu, who has also donated more than 70 seedlings for community use.

Some of the erosion control barriers such as half-moons constructed by the community. Photo by LIMCOM.

“If each of us plants one tree and teaches the young ones, then we will have all played our part in protecting our resources for present and future generations.”

Ndlovu said the next stage is to set up a vegetable garden within the Rendo Gully Reclamation site, which is approximately 3.1 hectares, so that the community can fully benefit from its resources. Furthermore, it is important to continue mobilising youth to become active stewards of their resources.

The Rendo Gully Reclamation site is located at the Guyu-Chelesa, a pilot site for SLM activities in Zimbabwe under the “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin” project.

The youth are actively engaged in all community activities. Photo by LIMCOM.

The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) is implementing the project in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Other identified SLM pilot sites are the Mogobane Dam in Botswana, the Massingir Dam in Mozambique, and the Mapochs in South Africa. At each of these four sites — one in each of the LIMCOM countries — local partners are spearheading the implementation of SLM activities with the communities.

The local partners include the Botswana Country Water Partnership, the Instituto Superior Politecnico de Gaza (ISPJ) in Mozambique, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Dabane Trust in Zimbabwe.

The main aim of implementing SLM activities at a pilot scale is to reduce land degradation, such as sedimentation, and enhance land productivity, creating opportunities for replication and scaling through socio-economic benefits, including payment for ecosystem services models.

Indeed, the transformation taking place at the Rendo Gallery Reclamation site in Gwanda could be a model for community-led restoration in the LRB. In fact, some local schools within the district and other neighbouring wards are replicating the approach.

About the project

The “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin” project seeks to achieve integrated, cross-sectoral, ecosystem-based management of the Limpopo River to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services. It is being implemented in the four countries that share the Limpopo namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.