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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND REGIONAL COOPERATION

The Zambezi Basin has been managed as disparate parts within eight national boundaries defined during colonialism. Until recently, those eight national parts, together totalling about 1,321,900 square kilometres, were not seen as part of a whole but independent components able to survive outside the natural unit that is represented by the basin, the third largest in Africa. The result was that the Zambezi River and/or its tributaries were seen as beginning and ending within national boundaries.

Historically, development projects in the basin were first and foremost undertaken within the national context rather than regional. This was a result of the existing political situation then. Regional cooperation in the Zambezi Basin only started in earnest as the political winds of change blew across the region. The 1980s saw the independence of Zimbabwe and the start of the process, which led to Namibian independence in 1990. Before these changes, countries in the region were in conflict, supporting liberation movements in both Zimbabwe and Namibia in their struggles against colonialism and illegal occupation. This was particularly the case during the 1970s.

Impact of war

Even though efforts to manage the Zambezi Basin as a unit started in the 1980s before Namibian independence, significant progress was only realised after the end of civil war in Mozambique in 1992, following the signing of a peace accord between the Frelimo government and Renamo rebels. This was consolidated with the all-party elections in 1994, which not only retained the Frelimo government but also confirmed Renamo as the official opposition party.

Hopes for peace were also raised in Angola following the elections in 1992 and another peace agreement in 1994 but the country is once again mired in war. The Angolan war has diverted the government's full attention and resources from some regional issues. War has made it difficult for meaningful work to be carried out in parts of the basin within Angola.

War imposes massive social, economic and ecological costs on countries. For example, at the height of the struggle against apartheid South Africa, the SADC countries lost US$60 billion between 1980-88 through lost exports and investments, forced high defence expenditures and infrastructure damage as a result of economic destabilisation and sabotage. The countries lost US$10 billion in 1988 alone. Virtually all the eight countries of the Zambezi Basin have in the past suffered many years of armed conflict, which saw the destruction of environmental management structures in some countries and massive injection of scarce financial resources into military hardware.

Where regional cooperation existed in the basin, it was defined within the railway-track parameters: harnessing water for either hydroelectric generation or irrigation. Engineering rather than social and/or ecological considerations were given priority. The impacts of dam construction on displaced people or flooded habitats were secondary. The Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams are good examples.

However, in the 40 years that the Kariba Dam has been in existence and the adoption of the 1966 Helsinki Rules governing management of shared watercourses, increased understanding of environmental management systems and ecology has helped reshape thinking on how the Zambezi Basin should be managed. The separate parts within national boundaries are now being seen as part of a whole, where the effective management of the whole is critical to the sustainability of the independent parts. The Zambezi Basin is now being seen as a whole ecosystem rather than the sum of its parts.

National policies and regional cooperation

The level of cooperation among different stakeholders at the national level has a bearing on cooperation at a regional level within the basin. At the national level, environmental and water resources management is complex with many ministries and departments involved in one way or another. Such a state of affairs may be necessary, as it is generally believed that there is strength in numbers. However, it may also be counterproductive, particularly if there is conflict among such disparate government players in the same area.

While the SADC countries have committed themselves to foster regional cooperation in many different sectors, by and large, this has not been translated into practical implementation at the national level. Cooperation is mostly at the government level, and in some cases, quasi-government institutions such as universities, but lacking at the community level. It is only recently that communities involved in community-based natural resources management programmes have started sharing experiences.

Cooperation among the eight Zambezi Basin states is largely defined in the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Such cooperation is articulated in the 1992 SADC Treaty and other relevant protocols, policies and treaties.

In addition to the SADC Secretariat headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana, SADC has decentralised its programmes, entrusting each SADC member state to coordinate a particular sector or sectors. Lesotho manages the environment and water sectors under separate coordination units: Environment and Land Management Sector (ELMS) under which ZACPLAN was initiated, and Water Sector Coordination Unit (WSCU).

Other SADC sectors/institutions whose mandates have a bearing on cooperation in the Zambezi Basin, include:

• Energy Sector Coordination Unit, Luanda, Angola.
• Inland Fisheries, Forestry and Wildlife, Lilongwe, Malawi.
• Tourism, Port Louis, Mauritius.
• Southern African Transport and Communications Commission, Maputo, Mozambique.
• Marine Fisheries, Windhoek, Namibia.
• Mining, Lusaka, Zambia.
• Drought Monitoring Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe.
• Food Security, Harare, Zimbabwe.

SADC Policy and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development

In August 1996, the SADC Policy and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development was approved following a three-year consultation process coordinated by SADC ELMS and involving various stakeholders in different SADC countries. The main goals for a regional environment policy and strategy are to:

• Protect and improve the health, environment and livelihoods of the people in southern Africa with priority to the poor majority.
• Preserve the natural heritage, biodiversity and life-supporting ecosystems in southern Africa.
• Support regional economic development on an equitable and sustainable basis for the benefit of present and future generations.

SADC protocols

In addition to the policy and strategy, a number of SADC protocols have been adopted to deal with various issues and all of them have a bearing on regional cooperation in the Zambezi Basin. Perhaps the most critical is the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems, which was signed in 1995.

The sharing of water across national boundaries has over the years become one of the most critical foreign policy issues in the SADC region in which the countries share at least 15 large and small river basins, covering about 70 percent of the region. Sharing water resources is just as complex for a small water basin such as the Pungwe between Mozambique and Zimbabwe as it is for large ones such as the Zambezi in which eight countries have common interests.

Shared watercourses are a potential source of conflict between or among countries, usually over water usage. A finite amount of freshwater is available to satisfy the needs of the growing population, the production of food, industrial and energy production, cities and conservation of nature.

But shared watercourses can also be instrumental in creating opportunities for strengthening cooperation.

Cooperation at OUA and UN levels

The Zambezi Basin states are signatories to several multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), which influence national programmes and regional initiatives that are outside the SADC MEAs.

States in the basin are members of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations. Under the ambit of the OAU, these countries participate in fora such as African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). The involvement of AMCEN in promoting regional cooperation in shared basins is due to the recognition that even though Africa has more than 50 international river basins, most of these basins do not have international agreements.

In almost three decades since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, various legal instruments have been adopted by the international community to facilitate a global approach to tackle many environmental problems. While half of the Zambezi Basin states (Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe) were not independent and, therefore, did not participate in the 1972 conference, two decades later all the basin states participated in the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Earth Summit spawned its own share of international agreements. These include the Convention on Biodiversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification, Forest Principles and Agenda 21.

These new conventions, including the 1997 Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, as well as those adopted prior to the 1990s, provide a challenge for regional cooperation in the Zambezi Basin. These agreements provide a basis for cooperation and harmonisation of laws and regulations needed for the effective management of the basin.

Future challenges

Management of the Zambezi Basin should extend beyond just the river and its immediate environs. Cooperation should not only be restricted to the immediate mandate of institutions such as the Zambezi River Authority, but others even if they may be about 400 kilometres away from Kariba. What happens in Luena, the largest urban area in the Angola part of the basin should be of interest to decision-makers as far as Chinde in the Zambezi Delta in Mozambique.

There is, therefore, need for a basin-wide coordinating structure, for example an expanded Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) or Zambezi River Basin Commission (ZAMCOM) as recommended under the Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems. Such a structure would foster multi-sectoralism, harmonious policies, integrated strategies, conflict resolution and definition of priorities. Cooperation should be multi-sectoral, taking into consideration not only water and environmental management, but also social and economic policies and programmes.

Policies on population, human settlements and distribution, human resources development, poverty alleviation, education, urbanisation and industrialisation, and energy are just as critical. Since it is accepted that poverty is a critical factor in resource overexploitation, lack of regional cooperation in addressing the causes of poverty limits successes in other areas of cooperation.

One of the major challenges to regional cooperation is conflict among regional institutions, both government and non-government, some of which may have competing interests. Overlaps and such competition among different institutions are common at the national level, and threaten strengthened cooperation at the regional level.

Ultimately, the success of regional cooperation within the basin depends on involvement of NGOs, the private sector and civic society in governance and cooperation issues, and political commitment.

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