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Malawians depleting their natural resources faster than they replace them
By
Patrick Zgambo - 05-06-2002 |
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Green house experts sug-gest Malawians’ habit of depleting their natural resources much faster than they can replace them is only a perfect catalyst of untold repercussions.
Not only, they warn, will the results be a decrease availability of these natural resources, but also the economic front is bound to get some battery.
Faced with a nastily rising population growth, Malawi, environmentalist say, is in fact already feeling the twinge of depleting its natural resources, but more worrying is that the long term effects may be far more disastrous.
Local experts agree it does touch several fronts but in the case of Malawi, the economy, agriculture and health are likely to be hit hardest by effects of poor natural resources management.
“Environmental degradation does touch the economy in a very big way, only that people are not willing to accept any link between the two, but the fact is that they are inseparable,” says John Mwalweni, Project Manager for Sustainable Forestry Management Project.
Mwalweni says that in the course of environmental degradation, resources become more and more scarce by the day and as such, the state and individuals spend more in order to have the same resources they would have otherwise had easily if they had managed sustainably.
In some cases, he says, the same natural resources—particularly some exotic types of timber—have had to be imported at a higher cost in the long run.
Clifford Mwenechanya, District Forestry Officer for Mzuzu Urban, agrees with Mwalweni and says the mismanagement of natural resources stems mainly from the fact that individuals and organisations do not replace resources as fast as they consume them.
“It is obviously the careless practice of cutting down of trees that is the main form of environmental degradation in our country and this has turned to have effects in agriculture and health as well,” he says.
Mwenechanya adds that in the case of land resources mismanagement, people have taken less care to manage their land sustainably. This, he says, has not only led to loss of soil fertility but also that land that can be used for agricultural production is increasingly becoming scarce.
“It is a vicious cycle, when we lose forests—say in the mountains—the running water from the bare mountains turn to erode the water. The vegetative cover in lower areas is lost. This is a perfect catalyst for soil erosion and we end up with poor harvests in the gardens,” says Mwalweni.
It is from that angle, agrees Julius Nkomaula, Chief Land Resources Manager for the Mzuzu Agricultural Development Division (ADD), that the worst economic effects of the country’s environmental degradation practices are felt.
“We are having lesser yields in recent years largely because of environmental mismanagement and remember that we are an agro-based economy and because we somehow got it wrong with managing our natural resources we are paying dearly economically, since our agriculture is in shambles as well,” he says.
He adds that in the long run, there has been a fast depletion of wildlife which is part of an influential foreign exchange earner through tourism.
“Environmental degradation bears a direct influence on tourism because with the fast depletion of habitat for wildlife, some species of animals are becoming extinct such that as a country we may no longer boast of the wildlife that tourists would like to see,” he cautions.
Nkomaula and Mwene-chanya agree with Mwalweni that even floods and
droughts the country is having these days are a direct result of natural resource mismanagement. These catastrophes, they insist, have in turn negatively impacted on the economy of the country.
Says Mwalweni: “You can see that because of the depletion of natural resources, most rivers are streams are beginning to dry up. The result is that the bed of lake Malawi is raised and at the end of it all we have these floods today where government has had to spend unnecessarily more”.
Mwenechanya agrees and says that even the aquatic life has been trapped in the vicious cycle because not only has the lake lost some species of fish but also the climatic pattern have drastically changed.
“It is not as though there is a spell cast on us that the rains have not been good for us, it is the environment that we have grossly mismanaged and we must do something together,” he says.
“My greatest fear is that at the rate we are going, we eventually may even have water shortage and that would be a shame because together we have the capacity to stop this,” agrees Mwalweni with Mwenechanya.
Nkomaula says the industrial sector, which he describes as an integral tool of the economy, has not been spared of effects of environmental degradation.
He says, because of flashing water, many rivers have been drying up because of siltation that comes with the running water. As a result, he adds, the Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (Escom) has most of the time ended up with chunks of sand in power generating turbines, which cost a lot of money to repair.
“We have frequent blackouts these days and it would not be fair to solely blame Escom because part of that comes from environmental mismanagement. I need not stress on effects of blackouts in relation to the industry—the economy to be precise,” he says.
Mwalweni and Mwene-chanya say that while the National Forestry Policy, Forestry Act (1997) and the National Forestry Programme provide enough legal backing for forests to be maintained, the staff and public have largely lacked proper information to appreciate the ideas being put forward.
Says Mwalweni: “The front line staff in managing natural resources basically lack the knowledge to discharge their duties properly and that includes educating the masses. If we correct such a shortfall, we may just find have found the formula to get out of this mess”.
If that is done, and only then, the country will just have stopped the adverse economic effects coming from environmental mismanagement.
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