PRESERVING BIODIVERSITY IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

By SIMON MUNTEMBA

CHARCOAL burning is my only source of income and you are so heartless to arrest me and confiscate my five bags of charcoal together with a bicycle as if I have stolen, laments a 42-year-old illegal charcoal burner, as forest officers apprehended him.

With his bicycle weighed down by five illegal produced bags of charcoal, a seemingly exhausted Mr Isaac Mubanga who was clad in a faded opposition Patriotic Front t-shirt, slowly pushed the load across the Great North Road heading towards the market when he abruptly saw the forest officers heading towards him at a distance of 100 metres.

Sensing danger, he fled into the bush, temporarily abandoning his bicycle with the bags of charcoal on it, in trying to avoid capture, but his escape mission was short-lived as the determined forest officers chased after him until he was netted.

In his lamentation after being apprehended, Mr Mubanga who spoke in his native language (Bemba) complained that he had resorted to charcoal burning to earn a living because in the past, he practiced the chitemene shifting cultivation system to make ends meet but failed to earn a stable income and provide for his five children due to declining agricultural productivity.

Mr Mubanga is one of the illegal charcoal burners in Chief Chikwanda area, Mpika District of Zambia’s Muchinga Province whose bags of charcoal and bicycles were confiscated on Monday, 18th July 2023 by forest officers during their patrols aimed at curbing illegal cutting down of trees and charcoal burning in the nearby local forests.

In his own words, Mr Mubanga said: “I don’t think I have done anything wrong for you to treat me like a hard-core criminal.  I am jobless and charcoal burning is my only source of income. In fact these practices have been happening since time immemorial. Why should it be an issue now? You are so heartless.”

This incident mirrors what is happening across the Southern Africa region where the wanton felling and destruction of trees for charcoal production, unsustainable agricultural production, logging, and settlements purposes are common.

The high demand for charcoal products has forced the majority of the people living under the heavy yoke of poverty to engage in this ‘lucrative’ business but at the expense of climate change and biodiversity.

Of course, the Southern Africa region is endowed with rich natural resources including forests, abundant water bodies, minerals, wildlife, and fertile land, which play important roles in people’s livelihoods and functioning of ecosystems. The region is also home to globally significant ecosystems and biodiversity.

For example, the Bangweulu wetlands which covers the three provinces of Zambia (Northern, Luapula and Muchinga) is one of the world’s biologically rich wetlands. The Miombo and mopane woodlands are also some of the dominant ecosystems in the region.

Notwithstanding the region’s resource endowments, the indigenous communities and villagers in proximity to these natural resources live below the poverty line due to lack of sustainable economic opportunities.

Thus, due to economic hardship and joblessness, the communities rely excessively on natural resources for survival, leading to climate change and loss of biodiversity.

What, then, is the link between climate change and biodiversity loss?

The major connection between climate change and biodiversity loss is that they are both driven by human economic activities and mutually reinforce each other.

A recent report by the United Nations (UN) agencies on climate change and biodiversity states that in a two-way process, climate change is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss, but the destruction of forests and other ecosystems undermines nature’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and protect against extreme weather impacts – accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss.

Burning fossil fuels, opening up forested lands and solid waste disposal produces carbon dioxide, a GHG which stays in the atmosphere for a very long time, and is the main cause of human-induced climate change. It is called a greenhouse gas because it produces a “greenhouse effect”.

The greenhouse effect traps the sun’s heat in the atmosphere and makes the earth warmer. Other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, stay in the atmosphere for a long time too and contribute to the global warming phenomenon, thereby causing loss of biodiversity.

Simply put, climate change can affect ecosystem services such as carbon capture and storage, but forest ecosystems play a critical role in the carbon cycle, helping to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in roots, soil, as well as, in the forest floor.

However, when human activities such as charcoal burning and the slash-and-burn agriculture system which is practised in the Southern Africa region p GHGs, they limit the ability of an ecosystem to provide this important service.

The carbon dioxide build up is made worse by the increasing loss of forests, which act as “carbon sinks” that absorb gases and prevent its release into the atmosphere.

Besides, practices like inappropriate tillage in the form of ploughing and hoeing exposes the soil to wind and water erosion, and increases the rate of soil carbon loss thereby reducing the soil’s capacity to act as a carbon sink.

“The use of ridge or furrow cultivation systems exposes soil to agents of erosion and release of captured carbon stocks in soils,” says the Muchinga Provincial Agricultural Coordinator, Victor Mulopa.

Dr Mulopa adds that unplanned burning not only exposes soils to increased temperatures and to agents of erosion but also reduces soil fertility.

These practices lead to increased GHG emissions, accelerated soil erosion, sedimentation in the riverine systems, and thus disrupting stable ecosystems important for natural water flow and support of flora and fauna downstream.

A warming earth due to an increasing concentration of trapped heat in the atmosphere because of GHG emissions then lead to changing weather and climate conditions that have a number of devastating impacts on man and the environment around him, leading to disruption of natural communities and extinction of species.

Thus, the relationship between climate change and biodiversity, in this context is that, as more trees get felled for either charcoal or agricultural production purposes, it leaves the environment to be susceptible to climatic impacts such as flooding which brings about soil erosion and destruction of crops, and green gas effects due to prolonged drought, leading to the extinction of the mammal species.

To tackle issues of climate change and loss of biodiversity, farmers in the region must avoid deforestation and adopt climate smart agriculture (CSA) and conservation agriculture (CA).

CSA aims to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes from crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, without having a negative impact on the environment.

In fact, CSA produces triple-win outcomes: increased productivity, enhanced resilience and reduced emissions.

It aims to reduce the exposure of farmers to short-term risks, while also strengthening their resilience by building their capacity to adapt and prosper in the face of shocks and longer-term stresses.

On the other hand, CA enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and improved and sustained crop production.

Actually, CA is scientifically proven to be 20 to 50 percent less labour intensive and thus contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through lower energy inputs and improved nutrient use efficiency.

Therefore, biodiversity conservation and forests can play an important and cost-effective role in protecting biological resources and reducing vulnerability to climate change.

Climate Change Affecting Biodiversity in Southern Africa Region.

Climate change, particularly droughts and floods, regularly trigger wildlife mortality and cause habitat degradation, reduce the abundance of different species, and place conservation objectives at risk.

These natural disasters have caused major disruptions to ecosystems, and the southern Africa region has not been spared.

For example, the devastating cyclone Freddy recently wreaked havoc in the Southern Africa region by not only killing hundreds of people and displacing several families in Mozambique and Malawi, but also destroying vast swathes of forest and damaging protected ecosystems that were essential to supporting biodiversity.

The catastrophic storm which happened between February and March 2023 also displaced wildlife and caused extensive soil erosion, affecting the region’s biodiversity and watershed.

The cyclone Freddy further caused a significant impact on the countries’ marine ecosystems, causing fish kills and river pollution.

The agriculture sector, which is a vital component of the countries’ economy, was also hit especially hard, with vast stretches of farmland destroyed, thereby threatening the livelihoods of several people.

Zambia which shares borders with Malawi and Mozambique has also been adversely affected by the drastic changes in rainfall patterns resulting in floods and droughts.

According to Zambia’s 2023 Voluntary National Review Report by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 rainy seasons, 22 deaths were recorded in the country as a result of increased frequency, intensity and magnitude of seasonal floods.

In Chama District of Eastern Province, for instance, over 50 houses had collapsed following days of torrential rains early this year.

Provincial Permanent Secretary, Paul Thole explains: “The worst affected were areas bordering Malawi which had been hit with the tropical cyclone Freddy”.

In addition, the region had experienced extremely poor rainfalls in 2015/2016, and 2018/2019, and devastating cyclones in 2019 (Idai and Kenneth), which mainly affected Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe which threatened the food security in the region.

The effects and magnitude of the climatic hazards so far experienced indicate that the region needs to put in place adequate adaptation and mitigation measures induced by climatic hazards to secure livelihoods, eradicate poverty and safeguard public infrastructure.

Countries in the region need to act now to mitigate climate change and prepare for the future by reducing GHG emissions from energy and biological sources or enhancing the sinks of GHGs.

Biological mitigation of GHGs can be done through conservation of existing carbon pools, for example, avoiding deforestation; sequestration by increasing the size of carbon pools, for instance through afforestation and reforestation; and substitution of fossil fuel energy by use of modern biomass.

Government’s legal policies

Through its land and forest-related policies, the Government is determined to manage productive landscapes to enhance forest products and services for improved income generation, and maintenance of biodiversity, says Zambia’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, Dr. Douty Chibamba.

The relevant legislations in place that seek to contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation in Zambia include The National Long Term Vision 2030; the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP, 2022– 2026); the Second National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2015); the National Policy on Environment (2007); and the National Policy on Climate Change (2016); and the National Climate Change Response Strategy (2012).

Other pieces of legislation include: the Zambia National Forest Policy (2014) and Forest Act (2015); the National Agriculture Policy (2016); the Environmental Management Act (2011); the National Energy Policy (2008); the Wetland Policy (2018), National Parks and Wildlife Policy (2018), National Policy on Environment (2007) and National Forestry Policy (2014).

At international level, Zambia, like other countries in the Southern Africa region is party to multilateral environmental agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

In 2015, Zambia joined the Paris Agreement and submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

In addition, in 2021, Zambia formulated the National Climate Change Learning Strategy to strengthen the national education and training systems to scale-up climate change learning across sectors.

Furthermore, the country has developed a legal framework to support the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, which is an international agreement that aims to promote the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources.

The Zambian Government has also established the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAP I and II), which provide a framework for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the country.

The country is in the process of aligning the NBSAP II to the Global Biodiversity Framework that was adopted at the 2022 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties 15 in Canada.

Recommendations

All the above listed policy documents have stipulated measures and guidelines to govern the management and utilisation of natural resources in Zambia.

However, the Zambian Government must ensure that the measures contained in these policy documents are effectively implemented and, where necessary strictly enforced.

For example, community forestry bodies created under the Forest Act No. 4 of 2015, to facilitate community engagement and devolution of powers to the local level in forest management, should be set up and fully operationalised across the country.

A specific biodiversity policy to regulate the sector, including human-induced activities that threaten biodiversity, must be instituted because currently, there is none.

Enhancing continuing professional development, fast-track policy reviews, and mainstreaming of climate change in development processes at all levels is urgently needed because there are gaps in technical, policy and institutional capacity.

Training and sensitisation on the rules, policies and legislation pertaining forest management, as well as the long term value of forests should be conducted.

The high levels of poverty and unemployment which are the underlying causes of unsustainable use of natural resources should be addressed, and alternatives for charcoal use and production be provided.

There is an urgent need for the Government to enhance mechanisms to promote private sector involvement in ecosystem protection.

International collaborations

In addressing the climate change and biodiversity loss, the Zambian Government through the World Bank funded Transforming Landscapes for Resilience and Development (TRALARD) project in Muchinga Province has supported 209 vulnerable community groups in diversifying livelihoods and improving farming practices.

The project has also trained 54,433 small-scale farmers consisting of 26,627 males and 27,806 females in climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices to help them adapt to climate change and contribute towards mitigating it.

The TRALARD project fits in the government’s policy as a key instrument for poverty reduction through CSA to enhance the adaptation to the impacts of climate change, improved food and nutrition security and income and the development of climate resilient agricultural value chains for participating smallholder farmers, fisher folk and natural resources users.

In an interview, TRALARD Provincial Project Operations Officer (POO), Catherine Sakala says out of the 209 supported community groups, 53,732 people from over 9, 000 households have benefited from the project.

To ensure that the forests were sustainably managed, TRALARD through the Department of Forest in Muchinga Province has trained 93 community members as honorary forest officers from 10 groups across the province to sustainably safeguard the forests in their communities.

Kachamu Women’s Group and Kaloswe Community Forest Management Group (CFMG) both of Mpika District are some of the beneficiaries of the TRALARD project.

After being empowered in various diversified livelihoods such as fish farming, beekeeping, gardening, rice production, and livestock production, the living standards of members have transformed, thereby reducing pressure on natural resources.

Kachamu Women’s Group has increasingly recorded success in agriculture-related business endeavours and made K 37, 885 profit in their first harvest.

Tired of living in abject poverty due unpredictable and erratic climatic patterns which had affected their crop production at household and community levels, 15 women in the village convened and unanimously agreed to form a cooperative in 2017 with the sole purpose of bailing themselves out of the bondage of extreme poverty.

They embarked on vegetable farming and sold to local traders within their community, but could not make profit because they lacked both knowledge in sustainable agricultural production and the capital to procure the necessary equipment to support the project.

According to Kachamu Women’s Group chairperson Ms Lister Chanda, the group had previously tried in vain to apply for different grants that were available in the district, but due to their consistency, they were identified and recommended by the local authority and applied successfully.

In January 2022, the group received technical and financial support worth over K700, 000 from the TRALARD project which they used to build a piggery and stock it with five pigs as a start-up capital, drill a solar powered borehole and install a water reservoir tank to support their gardening project.

At the moment, having been trained in conservation farming, stock production and financial literacy, the group has broken barriers and become leading women entrepreneurs not only in the village but the entire district.

A visibly happy group chairperson boasted that having started with only five pigs, just after a year, the group had managed to upsurge the number of pigs to 61 and made K37, 500 profit in their last harvest.

 “Apart from rearing pigs, we also grow sunflowers, grow maize, beans and vegetables throughout the year, using animal manure. In our last harvest we made K37, 500 profit, soon we shall be harvesting again and there will be more money in our pockets,” Mrs Chanda said.

In promoting social inclusion, the TRALARD project also embraced 15 persons with disabilities who are living in the proximity of the forest to be part of the Kaloswe CFMG.

The 15 who belonged to the different user groups have been empowered with K 183, 880 as a start-up capital to venture into beekeeping, gardening, chicken rearing, mushroom growing and processing, as well as caterpillar harvesting and packaging.

One of the beneficiaries, Charity Mulenga says the project’s intervention has not only restored the dignity of PwDs in the community but also contributed towards efforts to uplift their standard of living.

Ms Mulenga, 50, said before TRALARD’s intervention, she experienced exclusion from everyday life activities and was denied access to employment opportunities.

“With this empowerment, we will prove that as PwDs, we can work and improve our living standards just like any other person,” Ms Mulenga said.

The empowerment of some community members is commended as local people tend to be better protectors of forests than government agencies because they rely on them for livelihood.

There is a need for other international organisations to come on board and supplement the government’s efforts in helping vulnerable communities not only to improve agricultural productivity, but also establish alternative livelihoods that rely less on natural resources. This in turn builds resilience against extreme or prolonged weather events such as droughts and floods.

Public awareness and engagement

Forests contribute substantially to climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity conservation, but lack of knowledge about the value of trees is evident even in the way some charcoal burners uproot the trees instead of cutting from the stems to allow them to grow again.

Thus, there is an urgent need to engage the local community and raise awareness of the importance of caring for trees, not only to create sustainable incomes, but to improve the local climate and environment.

One way to raise awareness is by conducting sensitization which can be done by use of group discussions, role-plays, storytelling and songs, drama, posters and interactive community radio programmes.

The message should be tailored in such a way that it triggers behaviour change of citizens so that they adopt positive practices in relation to resilience and sustainable natural resource management.

Equally, traditional, church and civic leaders have critical roles to play in preserving biodiversity in fighting climate change because they have influence and the ability to mobilize others to support developmental initiatives in the community.

Besides, traditional leaders are powerful drivers of development because of the influence and respect they command amongst their people and being the custodians of the land, they also know the ancestral territories. They must be involved if biodiversity is to be preserved in the face of climate chnage.

Winning the fight against climate change requires active citizen engagement to secure buy-in to project activities and strengthen ownership of the process leading to the desired transformation.