State of the Environment Reporting Network for Southern Africa SOENETSA

SOENETSA NEWSLETTER

Vol. 1 No. 1, December 1999

A second state of the environment report for Southern Africa underway: workshop establishes data framework

Five years have past since the first comprehensive report on The State of the Environment in Southern Africa was published in 1994. A second report is now due, aiming at assessing environmental gains and losses made by Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries since then.

The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre’s Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre (SARDC-IMERCSA), in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Southern African Development Community Environment Land Management Sector (SADC ELMS), and the World Conservation Union Regional Office for Southern Africa (IUCN-ROSA), intends to carry out a number of activities to support the overall production process for the second report.

There is, for example, a need to assess the effectiveness, relevance and impact on policy setting and planning of the 1994 report and there is also a need to establish a collaborative and participatory institutional framework and data infrastructure.

 A workshop, the first in a series of three, was held in Harare recently. The aim was to agree on a formula to be used in the production and assessment of future SOE products in general and the State of the Environment in Southern Africa in particular.

 The areas discussed included:

·            Driving forces or demographics such as poverty and social development; technology and trade.

·            Human activities, which includes use of environmental resources, consumption of natural resources, and management patterns.

·            Stresses such as sources and levels of contaminants in the environment, and human activity stresses.  

·            Components of the environment including biological and physical characteristics of the environment as well as resource capability.

·            Ecological response to stresses such as changes in the environment and human health effects.

·            Management responses with activity measure as well institutional responses.

 On the basis of the above data areas, the workshop decided to come up with a proposal for the development of a database on environmental and related socio-economic data, which will quantify the state of the environment. The database will among other things include information on institutions, research, legislation and regulations, expertise and reports.

 The purpose of the second workshop, which will be held in Harare by the end of November 1999, will be to assess the usage and the impact of the 1994 report.

 Finally, in the beginning of December and also in Harare the third workshop will elaborate on the way forward for the second State of the Environment in Southern Africa report.