By Flata Kavinga
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) says it is recording an increase in violations of Zimbabwe’s environmental laws, attributing the trend to growing dependence on natural resources as an economic safety net.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Staff Capacity Building Workshop for EMA’s Southern Region in Gweru on Wednesday, EMA environmental education and publicity manager Amkela Sidange said the agency was strengthening its strategies to improve environmental protection and enforcement.
Sidange said the workshop was an opportunity for staff to review the agency’s progress midway through the year, realign its programmes and assess its performance in delivering its mandate.
“We are coming together as members of staff to have a relook at our policy direction, realign our programming, come up with strategies and check on our performance since we are already at mid-year,” she said.
She said the agency was also reviewing how it could better contribute to the whole-of-government approach towards achieving national development goals, including Vision 2030.
Sidange said one of the key issues identified by EMA was the rise in breaches of environmental legislation.
“As a regulatory authority on environmental issues, we are seeing an increase in violations of the country’s environmental laws,” she said.
She attributed the trend to increasing reliance on natural resources for livelihoods.
“We have seen that there is now an over-reliance on natural resources. Natural resources have become an economic safety net. The more people over-rely on these resources, the greater the extraction, which results in environmental degradation and pollution,” Sidange said.
She said the agency was exploring ways to strengthen the protection of natural resources and improve compliance with environmental laws.
The staff capacity-building workshop brought together EMA officials from the Southern Region to review programmes, assess performance and develop strategies for implementing the agency’s environmental management mandate during the remainder of the year.
