OBJECTIVE
STATE OF ENVIRONMENT ZAMBEZI BASIN Zambezi River Basin factsheets are produced on a range of topics, in English and Portuguese, through a project on State of Environment Zambezi Basin (SoE Zambezi), supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
The objective of the SOE Zambezi project is thus, to increase the availability of environmental information, and provide a well-functioning distribution channel, for the promotion of sustainable natural resource management in the Zambezi basin among decision-makers and policy makers at national, regional and sectoral levels, legislators, media, environmental organisations, schools, universities and other educational institutions, and the public at large.
The SoE Zambezi project is part of Communicating the Environment Programme (CEP), a partnership of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Environment and Land Management Sector (ELMS), the SADC Water Sector, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) and Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) I Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa (IMERCSA).
The CEP objective is to inform, motivate and empower people at all levels of environmental decision-making in the southern African region, from the individual and NGOs to the private sector and governments, to take positive action to counter environmental degradation and move towards sustainable development paths by providing them with clear, objective and meaningful information on the environment.
The State of the Environment Zambezi Basin (SOE Zambezi) project aims at raising awareness about the state of the environment in the Zambezi river basin.
The Project
SOE Zambezi promotes and strengthens community participation in the sustainable management of resources in the Zambezi river basin. The project highlights the ecological and economic importance of the Zambezi river in southern Africa through the production of various information materials.
The project also identifies and communicates potential areas of conflict in terms of water use and its management and pays attention to gender, particularly women's role as natural resource managers and seeks to involve as many people as possible in the debate on the environmental problems of the Zambezi basin so that proposals for the sustainable management of the basin's resources can be formulated.
The State of the Environment Reporting Programme for the Zambezi Basin has the following specific objectives:
- Promote and strengthen community participation in the sustainable management of resources in the Zambezi River basin, paying attention to gender,
particularly women's role as natural resource managers;
- Promote inter-institutional co-operation and collaboration in SOE reporting in the region;
Highlight both the ecological and economic importance of the Zambezi River in Southern Africa;
- Establish and communicate the biodiversity (in terms of ecosystems and species) of the Zambezi Basin and the potential impact of human activities on this
biodiversity;
- Identify and communicate hot spots in terms of water pollution (i.e. point- and non-point sources of pollution) in the basin;
- Identify and communicate potential areas of conflict in terms of
water use and its management;
- Promote the concept of managing shared watercourse systems in the Zambezi Basin.
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