Source: ‘Zim strives to minimise pollution’ | The Herald
Africa Moyo Deputy News Editor
Access to a healthy and clean environment is a constitutional right for all Zimbabweans and the Government continues to strive to combat biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said this week.
The loss of plant and animal life in the world, commonly known as biodiversity, was “extremely worrying” and demands that nations take practical measures to avert a disaster. Minister Ndlovu was speaking at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal Quebec, Canada.
COP15 started on December 7 and ended yesterday.
Minister Ndlovu said the rapid decline of biodiversity “has serious implications for humanity ranging from the collapse of food production, economic decline, and compromise of health systems, among others”.
“We strongly believe that the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will provide parties with the necessary guidance and catalyse support for biodiversity conservation,” Minister Ndlovu.
“Zimbabwe is endowed with diverse flora and fauna species, soil and agricultural biodiversity that are of immense conservation value to our national economy.
“Biodiversity is the cornerstone of my country’s economy and the livelihoods of the majority of our people.”
Zimbabwe’s protected area network coverage is a combined 26 percent of the country’s total land area, making up a well-connected network of biodiverse ecosystems including trans-frontier conservation areas.
Access to a healthy and clean environment was a constitutional right for all Zimbabweans and to deliver on this mandate, the Government continued “to strive to combat the triple planetary crisis we face of biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change”.
“Improved financing, continuous engagement of stakeholders including local communities, gender mainstreaming, enhanced law enforcement and establishment of transfrontier conservation areas with neighbouring countries have all contributed significantly to biodiversity conservation.
“Zimbabwe has also embarked on a 5-year nationwide wetland restoration initiative targeting ecological restoration of 350 000 hectares of degraded wetlands in a bid to restore the ecological integrity of the wetland ecosystems and their dependent flora and fauna species.”
Zimbabwe recently completed its first ever biodiversity economy report, which is the first step towards economic valuation of its biological assets.
Zimbabwe is now taking the necessary steps to develop a natural capital accounting framework, which will include measuring the flow of ecosystem services.
“This approach will ensure that the economic, social and environmental dimensions of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use are coherent and consistent,” he said.
“While Zimbabwe has registered this progress in biodiversity conservation, greater strides will be taken with the post-2020 global biodiversity framework coming into effect. As we set new targets and goals, new funding streams and more financial resources, technology transfer, capacity building and knowledge management systems are critical inputs for the achievement of the set targets.
“A robust resource mobilisation strategy is key as we require sustainable, reliable and an un-interrupted flow of resources to finance restoration and conservation projects in the long-term,” said Minister Ndlovu.
He hoped that the global biodiversity framework would close the financing gap and ensure that there was fair and equitable access to finances for developing nations such as Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe fully supported the establishment of a dedicated global biodiversity fund as it would ensure steady flow of resources to developing parties.
Like the rest of Africa, Zimbabwe supported the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources in any form, including digital sequence information.
To this end, Zimbabwe supported the establishment of a global multilateral benefit sharing mechanism in accordance with the Nagoya Protocol to support conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
Going forward, Minister Ndlovu said Zimbabwe remained committed to continue mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services within and across all policies and sectors as well as develop a national biodiversity finance plan to ensure smooth flow of resources to biodiversity conservation projects.
“The power is in our hands and together, we can make it happen,” he said.
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