The Tobacco Research Board intends to plant six million seedlings next year to counteract deforestation caused when trees are felled for fuel to cure tobacco, the Zimbabwe Herald said.

This year the goal is 3.5 million seedlings, the newspaper said on its website. The seedlings are four varieties of the fast-growing Eucalyptus species, the Herald said. The Research Board is working with an association set up by tobacco merchants and has the support of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, the newspaper said.