Environmental degradation is having a measureable adverse impact on the landscape of Southern Africa and the livelihoods of its people. A multitude of development-related factors including poverty, lack of suitable infrastructure, and significant portions of the population practicing subsistence agriculture help to make the environmental situation there more severe than in other places on earth. Pollution and improper waste management are taking a measurable toll on the health of Southern Africa’s people. Climate change is causing a more erratic and unpredictable set of weather patterns, increasing flooding and droughts. Deforestation is leading to desertification in some areas. These changes greatly inhibit the agricultural livelihoods of a large segment of the region’s population, and reduce their opportunity to achieve proper food security.
United Nations Millennium Development Goal (UNMDG) 7 calls for an increase in the sustainability of development efforts through the environmental stability that comes with reversing the loss of resources and declining biodiversity. The UNMDGs also strive to increase access to food security and proper sanitation for the world’s poorest peoples. These principles inspire the motivation within Panos to respond to the dire need for proper natural resource management in the Southern African region.
At Panos, we believe that media and communication are essential tools in shaping public opinion and we utilize them both to inform the public and to create an opportunity for marginalized groups to communicate directly with policy makers and other intervention specialists. Panos does this through a set of methodologies, both time-tested and innovative.
The primary goal of PSAf’s Environment and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) Programme is to create a sustainable set of responses for combating environmental degradation. We strive to improve the coverage of issues in ENRM by building media’s capacity to report more effectively on sustainable agricultural practices, natural resource management and conservation, air and water pollution reduction (especially with respect to extraction industries), climate change and climate change adaptation, and the preservation of biodiversity in Southern Africa. We are working to document the plight of the most affected communities in the region, while also empowering them with helpful information on ENRM topics and allowing them to share their own best practices for managing their surroundings. Through this, we endeavour to improve livelihoods not only through learning exchanges but also through policy changes brought about by dialogue between a more informed set of leaders and an enlightened public more empowered to demand that policies be composed and enacted with the best interests of their communities in mind. By working to increase the debate on ENRM issues at both the national and regional levels, we expect to see an improvement in the policies and institutional mechanisms implemented to address them.
For more information about PSAf’s ENRM Programme please contact vusa@panos.org.zm.
