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News September 2000
September 2000 Newsletter
The
Institute was very busy during this quarter. Two major workshops were
conducted. A training workshop on Using Participatory Systems Analysis –
A Case of Migrancy, Gender and Local Forest Management on the Wild Coast
of South Africa was conducted in Transkei, South Africa. Participants were
drawn from the IDRC funded Agroforestry Southern Africa project and the
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The Micro Catchment
Management and Common Property Resources Project held their annual
planning meeting and midterm review.
Initial
work on the Harare Air Pollution Project started with various planning
meeting being conducted to develop a work plan for the project. The Harare
Air Pollution Project is a collaborative project between Environment 2000,
the City of Harare, the Institute of Environmental Studies, Department of
Physics and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Zimbabwe.
Partnership
for Sound Soil Management “The African Conservation Tillage Network –
ACT”
The
African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) consists of practitioners and
promoters who believe that the adaptation and adoption of conservation
tillage principles and practises in Africa can not only reduce but reverse
the environmental degradation that is devastating the continent. The network was initiated in 1998 at a workshop on Conservation
Tillage For Sustainable Agriculture convened in Harare by Gesellschaft fur
Tecchnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), FAO, the Southern and Eastern Africa
base FARMESA, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union and the South African
Agricultural Research Council.
Objectives
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To create forums for, and stimulate the sharing of, the exchange of information and experiences among researchers, extensionists and practitioners, and encourage farmers to increasingly apply methods of soil and water conservation that are environmentally sound and economically viable.
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To encourage the formation of networks in order to promote an institutional and policy environment conducive for the dissemination of conservation tillage practises.
ACT
believes that there is a wealth of experience and expertise in the
practise and principles of conservation tillage throughout Africa, and
that the effective collection, synthesis and sharing of this knowledge
will greatly stimulate the adaptation and adoption of conservation tillage
practices and systems throughout the continent. However, in order not to overstretch its (at present) limited
resources, ACT aims to focus its activities in a 3 phase program i.e.
-
Phase 1: 2000 - 2003 (Eastern and Southern Africa)
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Phase 2: 2003 – 2005 (Western and Central Africa)
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Phase 3: 2006 – 2008 (North Africa)
The
network’s launch has been made possible by the kind assistance of the
German Government through GTZ. Membership
of ACT is open to any individual or group interested in the practise or
promotion of conservation tillage in Africa.
For
further information on the network please contact:
Richard
Fowler (Secretary):
Edward
Chuma (Convener) :
Environmental
Impacts of the Expansion of Tourism
A
seminar on the environmental impacts of the expansion of tourism, with
special emphasis on the woodcraft industry was conducted by the
Environmental Research Co-ordinating Committee. The seminar was attended participants from state institutions,
universities, non-governmental organisations, the tourism sector and some
wood carvers.
Some of the key issues that emerged from the seminar were:
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It is necessary to investigate whether certification can be used as a tool to promote sustainable forest management.
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There is need to investigate whether a system of royalties or fees on timber collected from local areas can be used to generate community assets.
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Monitoring and management of systems should be implemented by the communities themselves, not higher-level government institutions.
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There should be some attempt to build larger associations of carvers so that they can represent themselves in various forums.
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There is need to diversify the set of species used for carving.
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CAMPFIRE-type arrangements may not be easily applied to wood-carving.
Most decisions on environmental issues are affected by the factors
of distance, scale, spatial pattern, proximity, and connectance. Environmental data sets therefore typically comprise two
components: a spatial component related to the geographic location of a
data element: and an attribute component that describes the
characteristics or qualities of that data element. Tools are needed which enable these two components to be integrated
in ways that preserve the relationship between them.
The rapid development in recent years of theories, algorithms and
technology to address this complexity using Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) and Database Management Systems (DBMS) has greatly expanded the
capacity of scientists to collate, analyse, interpret, and display
spatially explicit, multi-att
GIS is increasingly being used as a component of Decision Support
Systems designed to optimise the conservation, use and management of
natural resources; to assess the agricultural potential of land on the
basis of climate, soils, topography, groundwater, and proximity to
infrastructure; to evaluate the likely environmental and social impacts of
particular developments; and to assess information from environmental
monitoring programmes.
The need to take spatial relationships into account is particularly
important in tropical ecosystems where there is high spatial variability
in the structure, composition and functioning of both natural and
agricultural systems, as well as in the superimposed social, economic, and
political infrastructure. The
diversity makes it essential for researchers and managers to have the
facility to incorporate this variability into their analyses and
projections.
For
further information on this project please contact:
Daniel Semwayo (Project Coordinator): dan-semwayo@hotmail.com
Micro-Catchment
Management and Common Property Resources Project Planning Workshop,
11-13th September 2000, Harare
The
workshop was organized by the Institute of Environmental Studies
(University of Zimbabwe) under the DFID funded Micro-catchment Management
and Common Property Resources Project The main objectives of
the workshop were to assess progress to date on the project log-frame and
too define key outputs required for the finalization of the project. The first session of the workshop covered various presentations
from project participants and stakeholders. A facilitated discussion on the way forward for catchment
management and common property resource management. The workshop was concluded
by incorporating comments from the project evaluators into the log frame.
Workshops
Introduction
to Environmental Impact Assessment
Date:
6-10 November 2000
Venue:
University of Zimbabwe
Registration Fees: $4500
For
more information please contact, The Administrator on email address dvhevha@icon.co.zw
Publications
B.
Campbell, W. de Jong, M. Luckert, A. Mandondo, F. Matose, N. Nemarundwe
and B. Sithole, “Challenges to Proponents of CPR Systems – Despairing
voices from the Social Forests of Zimbabwe” IES Working Paper
M.
Mutamba, “Environmental Impacts of Tourism Expansion: The Case Study of Craft Products”, IES Special Report
N.
Nemarundwe, “Institutional Collaboration and Shared Learning For Forest
Management in Chivi District, Zimbabwe”, IES Working Paper “This
paper examines processes of collaboration among institutions for communal
woodland management at the local level in Zimbabwe and explores how these
processes influence sustainable resource utilisation.”
