Zimbabwe Information Center in North America
A project of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (NACFREEZ)
MDC
By Stanford G. Mukasa
Letter from America
October 22, 2007
Given the destitute life that afflicts the vast majority of the population, one can understand why most Zimbabweans pay little or no attention to the wholesale destruction of the ecosystem.
Zimbabweans are going through one of the worst living conditions in living memory as a result of the disastrous socio-economic policies of the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe.
Life expectancy among the Zimbabweans has in less than a decade been slashed by nearly half to just 34 years for women and 37 years for men.
If Zimbabweans are experiencing such unprecedented neglect, oppression and degradation of their human dignity by the Mugabe regime one can well imagine what the situation must be in the case of the environment and wild life.
The invasion and destruction of commercial agriculture seven years ago by thugs acting under the orders of Mugabe marked the beginning of a wholesale destruction of the ecosystem in Zimbabwe.
And in a space of seven years 70 percent of commercial agriculture has been destroyed, resulting in widespread famine that will affect an estimated four million Zimbabweans next year.
Parallel to this massive humanitarian crisis that Mugabe has created has been a systematic destruction of the environment. It is estimated that 78 percent of the wild life on commercial farms has been decimated. Poaching is rampant. Top cronies in the Mugabe regime are involved, leading to a state of anarchy in game conservation. There are no viable policies on the environment and wildlife. Zimbabwe’s national herd, which totalled 1.4 million animals in 2000,has virtually been depleted with fewer than 125,000 animals surviving.
The greatest irony was the appointment last year of Zimbabwe’s minister of the environment, Francis Nhema, to head the United Nations commission on sustainable development.
The environment has also been severely affected by Mugabe’s politically motivated and misguided policies resulting in the pollution of the country’s major dams, the so-called Operation Murambatsvina which involved the wanton destruction of people’s homes, rendering nearly one million Zimbabweans homeless. The inability to generate enough energy resulting in massive power cuts led many Zimbabweans to cutting down trees for firewood used for cooking meals.
Yet Zimbabwe’s long-term sustainable development will necessarily rely on a well managed ecosystem.
Sustainable development is a critical element in the process of social reproduction, a process by which successive generations rely on for survival.
The United Nations commission on sustainable development has mapped out core indicators for sustainable development. Among these are poverty reduction, economic
development, good governance, health, land consumption and production patterns
education ,demographics, freshwater and biodiversity. In all of these indicators Zimbabwe has a very poor record.
Sustainable development has been described as “ development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The Mugabe regime has, by the wanton and barbaric destruction of the ecosystem in Zimbabwe, shown a callous disregard that the same ecosystem must support future generations as well. For Mugabe, who is 84 years old, there is no future , let alone present, generation to think about. All he and his cronies care about is his personal political survival.
Yet the preservation and proper management of the ecosystem must be activated as a matter of urgency.
With the regime having absconded from its responsibilities on ecosystem management the torch passes on to civil society and NGOs who are doing their best to preserve the environment, but under very oppressive conditions created by the Mugabe regime.
The secretary for natural resources, tourism and the environment in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Gertrude Mtombeni recently spoke in an interview about her vision for ecosystem management should the MDC become the new government in post- Mugabe Zimbabwe.
MDC is still formulating its policy on the environment. Mtombeni was, however, very clear about what she perceived as her responsibilities should she hold this position. The cornerstone of her vision is a partnership of all stakeholders in a collective effort to conserve the ecosystem.
Right from the very first day MDC will become government it will be faced with an avalanche of demands to save the environment. Whether she will, in fact be the Minister in charge of the ecosystem management Mtombeni knows that she has an immediate task of articulating MDC’s ecosystem policy so that the Tsvangirai administration will have a strategic plan that can be implemented almost immediately.
But Mtombeni does not have much time. If the current negotiations between MDC and ZANUPF are successfully concluded, elections could be held on their scheduled date in march next year. All things being equal, and if the elections are free and fair MDC’s victory is almost assured. This means the day after the MDC government is sworn in Mtombeni will be the point person for the new government’s environmental policy.
But the ecosystem is a sum total of the development indicators outlined by the commission on sustainable development. This will mean that ecosystem management will become a collective responsibility among the ministries and between government and the civil society and NGOs.
Earlier I said Zimbabweans can be excused for not paying much attention to the degradation of the environment by the Mugabe regime. Grinding poverty has transformed Zimbabwe into a nation perpetually in an uphill struggle to survive from one day to the next .
But neglect of the environment is not an option for Zimbabweans. The ecosystem is Zimbabweans’ lifeline.
What is needed now is for civil society and the MDC to join hands in a concerted effort to save the environment. Saving the environment is tantamount to saving Zimbabwe.
The biggest challenge for Mtombeni is to create among the Zimbabweans the ecological consciousness and conscience. Many Zimbabweans tend to take the environment for granted. As a result they do not realize they have a strategic role in conserving the ecosystem.
Zimbabweans, through the civil society and MDC leadership, must be educated and mobilized to take part in a massive rescue effort for the environment.
One very simple activity every Zimbabwean should undertake to do is tree planting. The cyclical drought conditions may mean some of the trees will not grow or will wither. But Zimbabweans will have made a start in this long road toward reforestation.
By mobilizing a grassroots effort toward ecosystem conservation civil society can effect significant changes in the long term.
Even as civil society is involved in a political struggle against Mugabe Zimbabweans must define the environment as part of that struggle.