For three decades, the Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources (SAFIRE) has been working to change the relationship between rural communities and the natural resources around them.
Now, that model has received national recognition.
The Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation has won the Environmental Stewardship & Social Impact Award at the 2026 Manicaland Province CSR, ESG & Responsible Business Awards, recognising its long-running work to make conservation a source of income and resilience for rural communities.
The award comes at a significant moment for community-based conservation in Zimbabwe.
Six months earlier, Parliament passed the Parks and Wildlife Amendment Act Number 4 of 2025, which formally recognised community environmental rights in national law for the first time. The legislation creates greater opportunities for communities to participate in managing and benefiting from the natural resources around them.
For SAFIRE, the legislative change gives greater weight to an approach the organisation has been pursuing for decades: conservation is more likely to succeed when communities have a direct economic stake in protecting the environment.
“This recognition is a proud milestone for SAFIRE and for the communities we have had the privilege to work alongside over the past three decades,” said Estella Toperesu, SAFIRE’s director.
“It affirms our conviction that lasting conservation is achieved when local people are empowered to restore, manage and sustainably benefit from their natural resources.”
SAFIRE was founded in 1994 at Tongogara Refugee Camp and later expanded its work nationally. It currently operates in Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South, supporting communities to develop businesses around natural products, restore ecosystems and strengthen local decision-making.
The organisation says its work has reached more than 33,000 households over the past decade, with average monthly household incomes increasing by about $165 through nature-based enterprises.
Its conservation efforts have also seen more than half a million trees planted, 50,000 hectares of degraded land restored and another 5,600 hectares of arable land protected.
Behind those numbers are communities attempting to build livelihoods without exhausting the ecosystems on which they depend.
SAFIRE has established nature-based enterprises around products including honey, baobab, mopane worm and marula. Rather than selling raw products, communities are supported to process them into higher-value goods, including honey-based cosmetics and candles.
The organisation also works on ecosystem restoration, distributing fuel-efficient “tsotso” stoves, restoring wetlands, planting trees and helping communities reduce soil erosion and protect shared land.
Its livelihood programmes include Village Savings and Lending Associations, irrigation rehabilitation and solar-powered water systems for community gardens. Local leaders and committees are also trained to manage forests, water and land.
The results can be seen most clearly at household level.
In Mutasa District, farmer Tawanda Bukuta once earned about $100 a month growing rain-fed maize on degraded land.
After joining SAFIRE’s forest restoration programme three years ago, he established a nursery producing export-quality peach seedlings. His monthly income has since risen to roughly $1,500, while he has helped 60 other farmers form an orchard and nursery group.
“I have learned the importance of protecting and nurturing our forests,” Bukuta said. “There is life in these ecosystems.”
In Buhera, SAFIRE says 49 farmers who had been cultivating fragile riverbanks moved into a solar-powered community garden, led by 48 women. The shift has allowed them to maintain agricultural production while reducing pressure on the river ecosystem.
The organisation’s wider restoration work has also produced measurable environmental gains.
Nearly 600,000 trees have been planted, while 50,000 hectares of degraded land have been regenerated. SAFIRE says its fuel-efficient stoves have reduced deforestation by 60% across nine districts.
In 2025 alone, two community gardens were solarised, providing reliable water for 68 farming households and 1,280 livestock. SAFIRE also restored 13 hectares of wetlands, supporting water security for an estimated 11,500 people, while training 92 community members in restoration work, 56 of them women.
The model has also extended beyond the communities directly supported by the organisation.
SAFIRE says all 60 of Zimbabwe’s Rural District Councils now operate natural resource management units based on a model it pioneered two decades ago.
That reach is particularly important in a country where rural communities depend heavily on natural resources while also living alongside protected areas.
Zimbabwe protects roughly 27% of its land, including national parks, sanctuaries and state forests. But communities living near these areas can face a difficult balance between protecting wildlife and maintaining livelihoods. Deforestation, habitat loss and poor land management have added to those pressures.
SAFIRE’s approach seeks to address both sides of that equation: protecting ecosystems while ensuring that the people living within them can see tangible economic benefits.
Toperesu said the organisation’s focus now was on taking that model further.
“At a time when Zimbabwe is placing greater emphasis on community-centred environmental stewardship and sustainable development, this award reinforces the relevance of that approach,” she said.
“We remain focused on scaling our impact, forging new partnerships and reaching more communities with solutions that protect ecosystems while improving lives.”
The recognition, therefore, is more than an award for an organisation that has spent 30 years working in Zimbabwe’s rural communities.
It is also a reflection of a broader shift in conservation thinking — one in which protecting forests, wetlands and wildlife is increasingly tied to whether the people living alongside them can build secure and sustainable livelihoods.
