23 Jun
2006 - By Hewitt Chizyuka* -As its name suggests,
Zambia’s Copperbelt Province was once the copper
belt that girded the fortunes of this southern
African nation’s prosperity. But over-dependence
on this raw material has turned those fortunes
into economic and environmental hardship.
The vast copper mines in Zambia
once attracted waves of African migrants — from
far and wide — in search of employment. But the
oil shocks of the 1970s, coupled with the eventual
crash in global copper prices, soon exposed the
country’s fragile economic growth base, casting
the economy into a downward spiral that ended
with a near total collapse of its mining industry
by the end of the 11000s.
The economic and social impact
of the copper belt’s changed fortunes was dire
as scores of mine workers were suddenly unemployed
with no immediate options of alternative livelihoods.
Many turned to the exploitation of natural resources
for survival.
Copper belt to crop belt
Conversion of forests for small-scale
agriculture soon became a prominent feature of
the copper belt, but even more troubling, people
resorted to charcoal production to meet a growing
urban demand for cheap energy. Burning charcoal,
compounded by years of copper ore smelting, has
heavily polluted the air and water, and felling
trees for its production has been responsible
for growing rates of deforestation.
It is estimated that 70–80 per
cent of the region’s inhabitants depend on subsistence
agriculture.
“The conversion of forests for
both agriculture and charcoal production has emerged
as a very significant threat to the integrity
of the copper belt’s landscape,” said Dr Muyeye
Chambwera, a policy specialist with WWF’s Southern
Africa Regional Programme.
“Today, the copper belt is faced
with complex economic and environmental challenges.
We are concerned about the depletion and degradation
of natural resources.”
Despite abject poverty, this
region of Zambia is also one of the most biologically
diverse, especially as it is positioned at the
headwaters of the Kafue, one of the largest river
basins in Zambia.
“People in the copper belt need
to benefit more from the flow of environmental
goods and services provided by the resources of
the region, such as water for domestic and industrial
use, irrigation, electricity generation and fisheries,”
added Dr Chambwera.
“These values can translate
into a significant contribution to the country’s
GDP, export earnings and most importantly, peoples’
livelihoods.”
Combating poverty
The copper belt lies within
WWF’s Miombo woodlands ecoregion, a science-based
global ranking of the Earth's most biologically
outstanding terrestrial, freshwater and marine
habitats. Experts agree that the area’s value
in terms of biodiversity, species endemism and
carbon sequestration, among others, make this
an important area of conservation focus.
Covering an area of 3.6 million
km2 and ten eastern and southern African countries,
the Miombo is an amazingly diverse tropical woodland
and wetland environment. It is home to 65 million
people and many large mammals, including giraffes,
elands, rhinos and elephants.
Under the Miombo Ecoregion Conservation
Programme (MECP), WWF is striving to come up with
a lasting solution to combat poverty in the area;
a programme that shows local people how to benefit
from the use of local resources on a sustainable
basis, and, ultimately, lift them out of poverty.
“We are trying to promote the
use of natural resources in a more sustainable
way, such as through less destructive agriculture
and charcoal production, as well as through the
reduction of water pollution from existing mines
and industries,” explained Dr Davison Gumbo, WWF’s
Miombo Ecoregion Leader.
“The vision of the MECP is that
in 50 years time the people and the nations of
the region will have a biologically diverse and
ecologically functional ecoregion that meets and
sustains human needs and developments through
the sustainable use of natural resources, landscapes,
species and environmental processes.”
He added that alternative livelihoods
such as bee keeping, fish breeding and game ranching
were being developed — all aimed at maintaining
the biological diversity and capacity of the region.
Conservation agriculture
In response to the growing demand
for agricultural land in the copper belt, the
Zambian government is de-gazetting some protected
forest areas to free up land for resettlement
and agriculture.
WWF is working with the government
to promote appropriate land-use planning and setting
up forest management schemes with communities
living adjacent to protected forests so as to
prevent further opening up of protected forests
for cultivation.
“Working with the government
will help with efforts to lobby against future
de-gazetting of protected forest areas in the
future,” stressed Gumbo.
At the same time, WWF is partnering
with the French agriculture research agency, CIRAD,
to promote conservation agriculture methods among
local farmers in the copper belt, with a view
to increasing their yields while conserving the
environment.
While conventional agriculture
is mainly characterized by intensive tillage,
which has contributed to significant soil degradation
through the loss of organic matter, conservation
agriculture offers a range of soil management
practices that minimize effects of erosion and
degradation. This includes minimal soil disturbance
(no tillage), permanent soil cover and crop rotations.
“The main objective of this
system of agriculture is to increase productivity
in order to secure food in households throughout
the year and to enable farmers to trade sufficient
surplus to meet other financial needs,” said Frederic
Baudron, a CIRAD agronomist who has been working
with WWF on integrating conservation agriculture
into Miombo’s conservation programme.
Among those WWF hopes to convince
to switch to conservation agriculture are charcoal
producers, who also practice conventional subsistence
farming. Many of these farmers have turned to
charcoal production to bridge the gap in their
incomes so that they can pay such basic needs
as healthcare, school fees, clothing and food.
“Poverty and food insecurity
resulting from poor agricultural practices lead
farmers to increase their dependence on natural
resources,” added Baudron. “That is why farmers
will look for income-generating activities based
on surrounding natural resources, such as charcoal
burning.”
According to WWF, promoting
conservation farming will not only improve farm
productivity, but will contribute to the reduction
of habitat loss. The permanent soil covers will
also reduce erosion and protect the Kafue River
from silting, an objective which is very much
a focus of the Miombo Ecoregion programme.
Another part of the Miombo project
is to help set up a local council, consisting
of key stakeholders in the region, that will agree
that will agree on land and water uses. WWF views
the establishment of such a river catchment council
as an important step to negotiate with downstream
beneficiaries of environmental goods and services
from the copper belt.”
“People who live here must see
the value in becoming stakeholders and guardians
of their own resources,” stressed Dr Chambwera.
“By sustainably utilizing the natural resources
that are available to them, rural livelihoods
in the copper belt can be improved.”
* Hewitt Chizyuka is a Communications
Officer with WWF’s Southern Africa Regional Programme
Office (SARPO), based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
