Following the Stockholm Conference on the Human Envi-ronment
(1972) and the establishment of the African Min-isterial
Conference on the Environment and Natural Resources
(AMCEN) in 1985, countries in southern Africa established
new environmental policies, agencies and laws to meet the needs
of their people while pursuing economic development.
Zambia (1985), Zimbabwe (1987), and Botswana (1990) pre-pared
National Conservation Strategies (NCSs); while Lesotho
(1989), Malawi (1994), Zambia (1994), Tanzania (1996), Swa-ziland
(1997), South Africa (1997) and Mozambique devel-oped
National Environmental Action Plans ( NEAPs).
All SADC member states prepared and presented
national reports to the Earth Summit held in Rio
de Janeiro in 1992. National action plans to im-plement
Agenda 21 were prepared by each coun-try
which have contributed to further review and
development of environmental action plans and
policies. Lesotho (1996), Tanzania (1997), Swa-ziland
(1998), and Mozambique have formulated
national environmental policies, while Namibia,
South Africa, and Zimbabwe have prepared envi-ronmental
management laws.
In addition to the policy developments after Rio, SADC coun-tries
re-organized their ministries and departments or created
new ones to deal specifically with environment and sustaina-ble
development. Most countries have established central en-vironmental
agencies such as the National Environmental Sec-retariat
in Lesotho, the Swaziland Environmental Authority,
Tanzania’s National Environmental Management Council, and
Zimbabwe’s Natural Resources Board.
At the global level, all
SADC member states are
parties to various
multilat-eral environmental
agree-ments including, the UN
Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD),
the Convention on
Biologi-cal Diversity (CBD), the
UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), the Basel and
Bamako Conventions on
Movement of Hazardous
Wastes, and the
Conven-tion on International Trade
in Endangered Species of
Fauna and Flora (CITES).
These agencies play a key role
in co-ordinating environmental
programmes and activities, for-mulation
of legislation and oth-er
legal instruments, and imple-menting
national activities, of-ten
in collaboration with
NGOs.
They play a crucial role in pre-paring
and co-ordinating na-tional
preparation in, and im-plementation
of multilateral en-vironmental
agreements, such
as conventions and protocols,
and in creating awareness and
partnerships and co-operation
at national and regional levels
in environmental management.At the global level, all SADC member states are parties to var-ious
multilateral environmental agreements including, the UN
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Basel and Bamako
Conventions on Movement of Hazardous Wastes, and the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Fauna and Flora (CITES).
In order to implement the agreements, the signatories have elaborated
national action programmes which have to be integrated
into existing policies, and brought into the national economic
planning process.
