Mozambique
Case study example1 - Principle 1: The Zambezi River Basin - "dialogue for building a common vision"
The Zambezi River Basin encompasses some 1.300 km2 throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, including a dense network of tributaries and associated wetland systems in eight countries (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique). The livelihoods of approximately 26 million people are directly dependent on this basin, deriving benefits from its water, hydro-electric power, irrigation developments, fisheries and great wealth of related natural resources, including grazing areas, wildlife, and tourism. Over the past forty years, however, the communities and ecosystems of the lower Zambezi have been constraint by the management of large upstream dams. The toll is particularly high on Mozambique, as it the last country on the journey of the Zambezi; Mozambicans have to live with the consequences of upriver management. By eliminating natural flooding and greatly increasing dry season flows in the lower Zambezi, Kariba Dam (completed in 1959) and especially Cahora Bassa Dam (completed in 1974) cause great hardship for hundreds of thousands of Mozambican villagers whose livelihoods depend on the ebb and flow of the Zambezi River. Although these hydropower dams generate important revenues and support development however, at the expense of other resource users. Subsistence fishing, farming, and livestock grazing activities have collapsed with the loss of the annual flood. The productivity of the prawn fishery has declined by $10 - 20 million per year -- this in a country that ranks as one of the world’s poorest nations (per capita income in 2000 was USD230). Changes in the flooding regime have affected the availability of water supplies, fuel wood, building materials, and medicinal plants, as well as general public health and the cultural relationship between local people and the river.
In 1985 the Zambezi Action Plan (ZACPLAN) was developed, with the objective to promote environmentally sound water resources management, while increasing long-term sustainable development in the basin. The SADC Protocol on shared watercourse systems was drafted as a follow-up in 1991, and in 1994 the Permanent River Basin Water Commission was established and subsequently joined by a number of SADC states. Projects that focus on drawing up regional legislation, establishing a unified monitoring system for water quality and quantity and setting standards for these, starting environmental education and developing integrated water management plans with broad stakeholder participation have been amongst the key initiatives. In Mozambique, a series of workshops and participatory projects are underway, engaging local resource users making their voices and needs heard in defining the objectives for integrated basin management. Participants have reached consensus on an ecologically sustainable framework for managing the water resources of the lower Zambezi and improving the living standards of thousands of riverine households. The extensive dialogue has resulted in the political will and commitment necessary to now take advantage of this unique window of opportunity to implement a common vision for future of the Zambezi system, both nationally and throughout the SADC region.
References: University of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique (http://www.uem.mz/); Museum of Natural History, Mozambique (http://www.museu.org.mz/index.htm); International Crane Foundation (http://www.savingcranes.org/abouticf/Africa_Program_Lower_Zambezi_Valley.asp); and Southern Waters Ecological Research and Consulting (http://www.southernwaters.co.za/sw/index.php); CBD webpage: http://www.biodiv.org/doc/case-studies/
1 It is recognised that the presented case studies address more than one principle of the ecosystem approach, optimally all of them. The cases were selected here to illustrate a real case example of an individual principle, only.