Poverty and environmental degradation are linked in a vicious circle in which people cannot afford to take proper care of the environment. A degraded environment produces less, so people become more vulnerable. As human population increases, the next generation must spread the limited resources even thinner to meet the growing demand. Marginal and fragile lands are encroached upon and degraded. Poverty reduction is therefore, the major challenge for policy- and decisionmakers on the protection and sustainable use of natural resources in the Zambezi Basin.

Human poverty
Human poverty involves the deprivation in health and survival, lack of knowledge, denial of opportunities for a creative and productive life, social exclusion, lack of freedom, as well as deprivation in income. In simple terms, human poverty can be seen as the denial of human development.

Figure 1: Human Poverty Index (%, 1995)

Source: UNDP/SADC/SAPES Trust, SADC Regional Human Development Report 1998, SAPES Books, Harare, 1998

The Human Poverty Index, introduced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1997 to measure poverty in developing countries, shows that 40 percent of the people in SADC live in poverty.

Of the eight basin states, Mozambique has the highest level of human poverty with 48.5 percent of the people affected. Malawi and Tanzania are second and third with 47.7 percent and 39.8 percent respectively.

Causes of poverty
An average annual population growth rate of more than three percent, slow economic growth and a fragile natural resource base are closely linked factors that cause poverty among the people of the Zambezi Basin states.

It is also generally accepted that economic reform programmes that are being undertaken by most of the basin states have contributed to increased poverty levels and pressure on the environment.

Structural adjustment programmes have, in some cases, resulted in massive lay-offs and unemployment, forcing people to seek alternative survival activities. These include extensive resource use and exploitation.

In Zimbabwe, for example, the majority of the rural people have gone into gold panning, forestry products, fruits, mats, tourist carvings, soft wood products and pottery products.

All these activities use natural resources. Inadequate access to land is another major contribution to poverty and is further compounded by high population growth rates. Access to land resources is perceived to be critical in countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. In Malawi, for example, land policies are being reviewed with a view of land distribution.

Figure 2: Economic growth rates in the Zambezi Basin Countries (1994-97)

Source: UNDP/SADC/SAPES Trust, SADC Regional Human Development Report 1998, SAPES Books, Harare, 1998

Currently 21 percent of the land in Malawi is public or state land, 13 percent is under leasehold or private ownership while 66 percent is customary. While the customary land is mainly located in very poor agro-ecological areas, there is a need to redistribute state-owned land to smallholder farmers for agricultural purposes.

State land is mainly composed of national parks, gazetted forests and protected land and state farms.

With regards to food security, the Zambezi Basin countries are generally not self-sufficient in food production. The statistics of cereal imports indicate a general increase between 1976-95.

These food imports help feed mainly rural people unable to fend for themselves due to poor harvests caused by droughts, floods, and excessive rain or due to lack of agricultural inputs. The percentage of the average annual imports of cereals for the Zambezi Basin states has been increasing since 1976 rising to a high of 29.4 between 1990-92.

A new and significant threat to human development in the region is the AIDS pandemic. On average, the HIV-infection rate among adults in SADC is 12 percent and rising rapidly.

Botswana and Zimbabwe, with an estimated quarter of the adult population living with HIV/AIDS, are now the hardest hit countries in the world.

Rural poverty and the environment
About 57 percent of the basin's population, more than 18 million people, live in rural areas where they depend heavily on natural resources.

The rural economy of the Zambezi Basin countries is principally dependent upon subsistence agriculture. In the face of increasing population, peasant farmers have resorted to cultivating marginal lands. These fragile ecosystems include steep slopes, streambanks, vleis and other ecologically sensitive areas.

Firewood is the major source of energy for the rural communities, and this leads to environmental problems such as unprecedented decimation of forests at a rate faster than that of natural regeneration. About 74 percent of the total energy needs in the basin states come from biomass.

The reasons for the excessive use of fuelwood include that it is a 'free' resource that enables poor households to channel most of their incomes to other needs.

Urban poverty and the environment
Overexploitation of natural resources in the Zambezi Basin is not limited to rural areas, but is also found in urban areas.

Land and food shortages cause population migration and shift environmental burdens to urban centres. Subsistence urban agriculture has, for example, expanded to augment meagre salaries.

In the wake of escalating building costs, sand poaching for brick-making has also become rampant in the basin states, causing massive land degradation. Urbanisation in the basin states is occurring at a very fast pace faster than the continental average of 4.3 percent.

The highest urbanised countries of the basin in 1995 were Zambia (43 percent), Namibia (37 percent), Mozambique (34 percent) and Zimbabwe (32 percent) with urban growth rates of 3.3, 5.3, 7.1 and 4.4 percent respectively.

Poverty and socioeconomic impacts
A degraded environment produces less, so people become more vulnerable both socially, and economically.

Poverty is reflected through problems such as malnutrition, poor health, inadequate housing and living conditions.

Many poor people live in overcrowded and unhealthy slums without access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Poor people suffer more from pollution since they frequently have no choice but to draw water from contaminated sources.

The presence of waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea is currently increasing within the Zambezi Basin. Nearly 60 percent of the people in the SADC region are without access to basic health services, over half are without access to sanitation and over 40 percent are without access to safe drinking water.

Poverty is also one of the most urgent issues affecting women in the region. Women, being the main food providers of most families and in charge of food security, therefore, become most seriously affected by poverty.

A majority of the women in the Zambezi Basin are rural based and remain peripheral to human development and governance. In general, the balance sheet of the Zambezi Basin reveals that women do not have an equal share of land and political power compared to men.

In Zambia, for example, 90 percent of the land available for agriculture falls under traditional land controlled by chiefs who follow patriarchal principles in its allocation.

Control of household incomes between spouses is also far from equal in the region. Men largely control the proceeds from marketed household production in the agricultural sector, even where women provide extensive labour inputs.

This impacts on the ability of women to accumulate capital for investment. Although women who head households are in a marginally better position to accumulate wealth, their ability to do so is frequently undermined by inequalities of access to productive resources.

In cases where women and men enjoy autonomy in spending some proportion of household income, their patterns of spending differ.

Women tend to spend more on dependants, including members of the extended family, and in replacing food supplies when they run out, while men, on average, tend to spend more on themselves or buy fixed assets.

In Botswana for instance, a 1996 poverty study revealed that in male-headed households men contribute only about half of their monthly income to the "common household pool".

Child labour is another effect of poverty. Child labour is the employment in formal and informal economic sectors of persons under the age of 16, which marks the end of mandatory school attendance.

These children are often subjected to long working hours, exposure to harmful substances, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, and deprivation of decent upbringing, socialisation and education.
Protection afforded by the law is inadequate. In Zimbabwe, for example, it is estimated that 40,000 children are in various forms of employment.

The way forward
Policies that entrench unequal distribution of resources, lack of tenure and low commodity prices, and drive the poor into marginal environments to cause more poverty, need revision.

The full participation of the people of the basin in the planning and implementation of development projects should also be a central part of the development process.

It is only recently that concerted efforts are being made at the regional level to address growing poverty in the basin states.

Through the SADC Food Security Unit based in Harare, Zimbabwe, the region has embarked on a major poverty alleviation project. One of its aims is to build national capacity to effectively tackle poverty issues.

The Poverty Alleviation Programme in Malawi and the Poverty Alleviation Action Plan in Zimbabwe are clear examples of such initiatives.

In the case of Malawi, government has recognised the dire poverty situation in the country. To address the poverty situation, the government has deliberately set up meetings involving ordinary people and their leaders to identify the people's needs that require immediate government intervention.

Rural communities have often appealed for facilities such as boreholes, clinics, roads, primary and secondary schools and farm inputs such as fertiliser and seed. Their needs are promptly addressed through the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) and other sources.

As the Malawi case demonstrates, the needs of communities are basic: clean water to safeguard health, clinics to fight diseases, roads to facilitate access to markets and education. These needs, if addressed, are the basis for development and growth.

Conclusion
Access to resources is central to improving the welfare of the people of the basin. The full participation of the people of the basin in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of development projects should also be a central part of the development process.

Poverty alleviation is crucial in order to achieve sustainable development.

Glossary

Environmental degradation is the depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife by using it at a faster rate than it is naturally replenished.

Malnutrition is a dietary condition resulting from the absence of some foods or essential elements necessary for health.

Marginal lands are lands with poor soils not suitable for cultivation.

Population growth rate is the annual growth rate of the population calculated from mid-year.

Subsistence is a situation in which people provide for all own needs from their immediate environment, rather than earning wages to pay for goods and services.

Sources

United Nations Development Programme   
Rua Major Kanhangulo, 197  C.P. 910, Luanda   
Angola   
Tel: 244-2-335609  
Fax: 244-1-4079563761  
       
Institute of Rural Development   
Av. Acordo de Lusaka, 2115    
C.P. 1310, Maputo   
Mozambique   
Tel: 258-1-490604/490807/494977   
Fax: 258-1-494974   
           
University of Zambia   
Rural Development Studies Bureau  
P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka   
Zambia   
Tel: 260-01-295421 
Fax: 260-01-295213    

University of Botswana   
Jawara Road/Phuthadikobo Way
Private Bag 0022, Gaborone 
Botswana   
Tel: 267-3552914/661833  
Fax: 267-357573/661835    

Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development    
Private Bag 13184 Windhoek   
Namibia  
Tel: 264-61-239050
Fax: 264-61-249114   

Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare   
Private Bag 7707, Causeway, Harare  
Zimbabwe   
Tel: 263-4-790871/2
Fax: 263-4-794568   

University of Malawi   
Centre for Social Research    
P.O. Box 278, Zomba 
Malawi   
Tel: 265-522222
Fax: 265-522420/277364   

University of Dar es Salaam  
Institute of Development Studies   
P.O. Box 35169, Dar es Salaam   
Tanzania  
Tel: 255-51-75481/450125  
Fax: 255-51-75479/410395   

    Bibligraphy

Chenje, M., Sola, L., and Paleczny, D. (eds.), The State of Zimbabwe's Environment 1998, Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism, Harare, 1998.

The World Bank, Taking Action to Reduce Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, IBRD/The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1996.