The environment resource centre is named in honour of the late IUCN regional director for southern Africa, India Musokotwane, a Zambian specialist in environment and development who inspired the founding of a visionary regional partnership of government and non-government sectors through the Communicating the Environment Programme (CEP).

The general objective of IMERCSA is to inform, motivate and empower people at all levels of environmental decision-making in southern Africa to take positive actions to counter environmental degradation and move towards sustainable development paths by providing them with accessible information and knowledge on the environment.

IMERCSA’s focus areas under the two main broad thematic areas of environment and water are:

• Climate change;
• Water resources management and sanitation;
• Land and food security; and
• Natural disasters

IMERCSA works in partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and has regional and national partners throughout southern Africa. SARDC IMERCSA is the regional collaborating centre for southern Africa for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), contributing to the Africa Environment Outlook (AEO) and the Global Environment Outlook (GEO), and producing the Southern Africa Environment Outlook (SAEO). Formerly called State of the Environment (SOE) reports, the environment outlooks are IMERCSA’s most sought after outputs. IMERCSA initiated the first SOE report in 1994, State of the Environment in Southern Africa, in partnership with SADC and IUCN-The World Conservation Union, and has continued to produce thematic and other reports on the southern African environment.

The most recent environmental reports produced by IMERCSA are the Southern Africa Environment Outlook launched in 2009, and Responding to Climate Change Impacts: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies as Practiced in the Zambezi River Basin, published 2010. These reports highlight the state of the environment, impact of climate change in southern Africa on people and the environment, adaptation strategies, and future prospects and scenarios. An Atlas of the Zambezi River Basin: The Changing Environment is set for launch in 2012.

In addition to the reports, IMERCSA produces newsletters, fact sheets, policy brief and posters on specific thematic areas. It maintains databases of country profiles and indicators for state of the environment assessment and reporting in southern Africa.