J1022N Soft Foot Alliance - Income Initiatives in Mabale and Dete

The Situation

The Soft Foot Alliance Trust is a community-based trust on the edge of Hwange National park in Zimbabwe that is working towards achieving People-Animal harmony in a novel and exciting way.

Through a combination of Permaculture and Holistic management principles and a good dollop of “walking the talk” we are working hand-in-hand with our community to regenerate degraded landscapes and turn them into landscapes of abundance for all life to flourish. Fortress conservation seeks to separate people from the wildlife but the work of the Soft Foot Alliance realizes and celebrates the fact that people are an integral part of ecosystem health. Instead of telling

people what not to do, say cutting trees down for firewood and burning bricks, we offer alternatives like fuel efficient rocket-stoves that use 1% of the wood an open fire does and we teach people to build rammed-earth homes that are modern, cheap and don’t need burnt bricks to build. We encourage regenerative efforts by rewarding the most active regenerators with “points”. These points can be accumulated and traded for rainwater-harvesting tanks, mobile bomas and even rammed earth homes. We encourage people to herd their livestock to a Holistic management plan that grows grass and secures the water cycle. We believe that an abundant landscape creates more and more opportunities for people and the healthier the future for all.

The Objectives

• Creating whole landscapes of abundance to encourage and facilitate co-existence
• Demonstrate and encourage the uptake of the principles of Permaculture in every aspect of the community to ensure that the environment is rehabilitated so people and local wildlife thrive