The SOE Newsletter is an electronic newsletter aimed at highlighting issues related to State of the Environment (SOE) reporting in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The State of the Environment Reporting Network for Southern Africa (SOERNETSA) is a network of concerned environmentalists, natural resources managers, researchers, scientists and any other interested parties involved in the environment sector in general, and SOE reporting in particular. The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre- Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa (SARDC-IMERCSA) is the regional hub for SOERNETSA. Individuals and organisations are welcome to participate in the network and facilitate in the sharing of ideas on the region's state of the environment. The sharing of information through this forum will assist in addressing various questions on the region's environment and help our societies to overcome the crisis of habitat destruction and overexploitation of natural resources. The SOERNetSA newsletter is produced as part of SARDC-IMERCSA’s participation in the regional Networking and Capacity Building Programme (NETCAB), which is managed by the World Conservation Union Regional Office for Southern Africa (IUCN-ROSA). This publication was made possible through the support provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Centre for Southern Africa (RCSA), Gaborone, Botswana, under the terms of Grant no. 690-A-00-95-00950-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USAID.