Where are you: Home News September 1998


September 1998 Newsletter

Marty Luckert Joins IES for A year

Professor Luckert, a collaborator from the Value of Trees project, will be in Zimbabwe for the duration of 1999.  Using experience gained from the Value of Trees project, he will be involved in preparing a book on the value woodlands.  In addition, under the Agroforestry Southern Africa project and a project from Centre for International Forestry Research, he will conduct research with Zimbabwean collaborators on tenure in natural resource.

New Agroforestry Publications

Common Property Management of Natural Resources

CAMPFIRE, a programme in Zimbabwe in which local people are empowered to manage and benefit from wildlife, has had some excellent results.  Common Property Resource (CPR)  systems based on other resources such as grazing and woodlands, have very limited success.  This does not augur well for the common resources in areas where wildlife is not in abundance.

A team co-ordinated by IES has prepared a proposal where the fundamental assumption is that productive water, for example water that can be used for market gardening, can be used as the entry point for managing water catchment condition and water quantity at water points.  This proposal is under consideration for funding by the UK Department of International Development (DFID) through funds administered by Natural Resource International.

A paper by Peter Frost and Alois Mandondo on livelihood systems in semi-arid systems, that includes the arguments for basing CPR systems on water, will shortly be available.

Pollution Levels Rising…..

Pollution in Harare is rising to levels about the maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation.  The level of air pollution in the city is said to have resulted in an increase in disease, causing Harare City Council officials to start thinking of enacting by-laws with which to inspect vehicles for exhaust emissions.

In his quarterly report for the period January to March, the director of health services, Dr Lovemore Mbengeranwa,said the marjority f the 417 220 people who visited council clinics suffered from acute respiratory infections, ear, nose, through and skin infections.  These were directly related to overcrowding and air pollution.  The proposed by-laws would give council powers to inspect vehicles for exhaust emissions resulting in those emitting dangerous gases being prosecuted.

Currently the law only stated that vehicles should not emit excessive visible smoke and no reference is made to the definition of excessive, nor to the emission of invisible pollutants such as carbon monoxide and hydro-carbons.  The Heral 28th September,1998. 

The Institute is recently conduced a Policy Dialogue on the impacts of Air Pollution. The results from the dialogue will shortly be available.

Newspapers Challenged to Profile Environmental Issues

Twenty-eight local environmental journalists on 21st August 1998 completed a three-day hands-on workshop designed to improve their reporting skills.  Various speakers, who included scientists, environmental economists and lawyers, addressed the participants.  Among the experts were Dr Richard Gurure of the Department of National Parks, Mr Grant Milne, and Environmental economist, Ms Jennifer Mahomed-Katerere and Charlene Hewitt of Environmental 2000 (E2000). 

The workshop was co-ordinated by E2000 and Chris Bowman of the International Centre for Journalists was the course leader.  Natural Resources Board chairman Mr James Chitauro said the awards assisted the board by encouraging reporters to highlight ban environmental management practices.  The Herald, 22nd August 1998.

SEMINAR on Environmental Impacts of Tourism Expansion

Date:              12th October 1998
Venue:            Chevron Hotel, Masvingo

IES Policy Briefs

IES has launched a series of publications entitled IES Policy Briefs, which wil consists of two A4 pages containing information relevant to policy makers.  So, if you have an idea and wish to have it heard through the IES Policy Brief, please submit it to IES for consideration.

AVAILABLE NOW

Can Campfire for beyond Elephant?  By Bruce Campbell, Neil Byron, Pauline Hobane, Elias Madzudzo, Frank Matose and Liz Wily.  IES Policy Briefs no 1.

Rhodes University Courses Available

The Rhodes Environment Certificate courses and Rhodes University Certificate in Environmental Education for Industry shall be available at Speciss College commencing on 24th September, 1998.  Delegates will attend four two-hour day workshops and a minimum of three one-day between September 1998 and July 1999/

These two Rhodes University Certificate Courses will be run in parallel to facilitate a number of joint sessions when participants from both groups will work together.  The Environmental Education Certificate course is designed for those who are involved in Environmental education in formal and non-formal education such as health,, tourism and community development.

The newly developed “Environmental Education for Industry” course aims to develop a critical understanding of industry related environmental issues and skills needed by industrial trainers and management concerned with environmental education and management.  Both programmes course themes such as:

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