Environment and Natural Resource Conservation and Management in Mozambique

Chapter 2. Environmental Malpractices in Mozambique: A Case Study of Xai-Xai Rural Area, Gaza Province, Mozambique

27 Chapter 2 Environmental Malpractices in Mozambique: A Case Study of Xai-Xai Rural Area, Gaza Province Introduction Recent climate of the world is now known to have fluctuated frequently and extensively in the three or so million years during which humans have inhabited the earth.1 Recent studies have confirmed that the world is undergoing serious climate change as global temperature is ever increasing. While the bulk of the changes that the global world is undergoing have nothing to do with human intervention,2 the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,3 reveals that the global average temperature will increase by 1.4° C to 5.8° C between 1990 and 2100 if the levels of emissions are not reduced. According to the same report, though the bulk of global changes are believed to be natural, the emission of carbon dioxide and, therefore, increase in temperature in the atmosphere is largely attributed to the anthropogenic activities especially the global use of fossil fuels. On the other hand, developing countries especially in Africa are even more vulnerable due to their low adaptive capacities and their dependence on rain-fed agriculture,4 and small-scale subsistence agriculture for their livelihood security.5 The impacts of climate change in Africa as elsewhere are generally manifested in human health and in the agricultural sector worsening the existing levels of poverty and undermining all development efforts in the continent. In Mozambique, for example, since about 80% of the 28 population depend directly on land and other natural resources, the effects of climate change and variability are likely to have tremendous consequences on the rural communities and the national economy in general. The main sectors likely to be impacted by climate change according to Mozambique’s initial Communication to UNFCCC6 include: Agriculture and food security, water resources, costal resources, biodiversity, human health, loss of life, erosion, land degradation, sea level rise, natural disasters, salt intrusion, crops, ecosystems, property, human and animal habitats, outbreaks of pests and diseases, displacement of people, and destruction of infrastructure (communication network, schools, hospitals and houses). In view of these forecasted problems, environmental protagonists have relentlessly championed “good” and sustainable environmental practices as indispensable catalysts for fostering human health and fighting global warming in general. However, these protagonists have championed environmental practices but without critically reflecting on and taking stock of the deep seated structural constraints (poverty, high levels of illiteracy, lack of environmental and agricultural expertise among the rural populace), ideological and political motivations that accompany good environmental practices adoption and use in resource constrained environments.7 Not surprisingly, several studies on environmental management evolve and are guided by the assumptions that increasing access to information particularly secondary sources/material like books and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will inevitably scale up access to information and accelerate the production of knowledge.8 This understanding has been accentuated by the role of the Internet and the World Wide Web in “democratizing” the production, dissemination and access to 29 information. The interventions at national and educational institution levels have been guided by the unsubstantiated assumption that increasing the ICT infrastructure (internet and communication networks, computers, electricity supply) and other secondary materials like books will automatically improve human knowledge on environmental management without paying sufficient attention to other structural constraints that hinder access to the information like the ICT skills gaps of academics and laypeople, crippling poverty levels, high levels of illiteracy, socio-cultural barriers like negative perceptions towards new technologies such as pedagogical use of ICT and student limited communicative competencies. In the light of this observation, it can be argued that the empowerment of peasant farmers (farmers at grassroots) and other rural dwellers should be in the forefront on environment and natural resources conservation issues that affect their communities. Put it differently, rural people should be made prosumers9 , that is, environmental managers and users of resources in their own communities. Prosuming conservation, thus, is critical as it is likely to promote sustainable conservation of the environment and other natural resources. While the aforementioned points are critical to Africa and the world in general, in Mozambique, the recommendation to adopt presuming conservation is more urgent than ever. Besides, the causes and impacts of environmental changes are also greatly visible, hence one reason (among many others) why this study has adopted Mozambique, and in particular Xai-Xai rural area as a case study. Mozambique is among the...