Question

The problem of political and economic development of Africa can be attributed to poor management of their natural resources. Discuss this statement and illustrate your answer with concrete examples across the African continent in not less than 2,000 words

Answer 1

INTRODUCTION

Poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth and environmental sustainability are the key pillars of development plans in most African countries. There is consensus that natural resources, especially those of land, soil, water, forest, plant and animal diversity, vegetation, renewable energy sources, climate change and ecosystems services are fundamental for improving livelihoods and achieving sustainable development in Africa. This is especially so if emerging market opportunities for adding value to natural resource goods and services can be accessible to the poor. However, how best to manage Africa’s natural resources to improve livelihoods, reduce poverty and advance economic growth while maintaining and enhancing the sustainability and resilience of the natural resource base remains an elusive goal and daunting challenge for research, teaching, development practice, community actions and policy. Understanding and tackling this complex challenge demands creative, integrative and holistic approaches by multiple stakeholders, to bring multiple and complementary perspectives, knowledge and skills to facilitate a socially equitable, economically efficient and environmentally sound development.

It presents the book’s conceptual roadmap. In the book, the terms natural resources and environment are used interchangeably. The term environment generally refers to a natural resource base that provides sources and performs sink functions (Bucknall, 2000). The chapter starts with an overview of the different perspectives on the linkages between NRM, poverty and development. The chapter introduces the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable livelihoods as a way of thinking about the objectives, scope and priorities for NRM to serve development purposes. The second part examines the state of NRM and development in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). Drawing from insights embedded in the book’s nine chapters, the concluding part summarises some options for managing natural resources for development. The learning activities at the end of the chapter are meant to engage readers and students and encourage them to further explore critical issues and contextualize them in the challenges and opportunities of their specific countries.

NRM, Poverty and Development Linkages

Natural resource management is defined here as a scientific and technical principle that forms a basis for sustainable management (conservation and use) and governance of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations. It is widely recognized that natural resources contribute significantly to development in different ways: as an economic activity and source of growth; as a livelihood, by providing jobs for people; and as a provider of environmental services that can have both good and bad outcomes (NEPAD, 2003; Comim et al., 2009; Khan, 2008; IAASTD, 2009; Chowdhury and Ahmed, 2010). Chapter two discusses the linkages between ecosystem services and human well-being: the bundle of positive benefits that people obtain from natural resources.

NRM and the Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted the eight (8) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as the broad comprehensive and specific development goals the UN set for the world to achieve by 2015 (Box 1.1). They provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. The MDGs are both global and local, customised by each country to suit their specific development needs. There is a specific MDG focusing on environmental sustainability (MDG7) that advocates for the integration of the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes to reverse the loss of environmental resources. MDG 7 has direct links and is critical for the attainment of all other MDGs. Sustainable management of natural resources contributes to poverty alleviation, helps reduce diseases and child mortality, improves maternal health, and can contribute to gender equality and universal education. Non-sustainable use of natural resources, including land, water, forests and fisheries, can threaten individual livelihoods as well as local, national and international economies. The environment can play a significant role in contributing to development and human well-being. It can also increase human vulnerability, causing human migration, insecurity and other health effects. Environmental scarcity can foster cooperation, but can also contribute to tensions or conflicts (UNEP, 2007).

There is evidence that NRM influences health, maternal health, child mortality, malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. It is estimated that at least 30% of the 18 million people who die annually, most of them women and children, are due to poverty-related causes (IDRC, 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, about 35% of the total burden of disease is caused by natural resource degradation. Degradation of natural resources fosters conditions for disease outbreak and transmission. Deterioration of fresh water resources decreases water quality. This leads to increase in water-borne diseases, a significant cause of child mortality. Land degradation, soil erosion, droughts and floods directly contribute to food shortage and malnutrition, and all the direct and indirect effects on child mortality, maternal health, and other diseases such as malaria, decrease of immunity that exposes people to a host of infectious diseases.

A number of studies conducted in Eastern and Southern Africa, have unveiled the complex, multifactoral and bidirectional pathways and negative feedback loops between HIV/AIDS and NRM (for a review see Bolton and Talman 2010). Bolton and Talman having reviewed studies conducted in 10 African countries including Uganda, have reported that the fisher folk are both highly dependent on natural resources (fisheries) for their livelihoods and are highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, with rates ranging from 4 to 14 times more than the general population. In Kenya and Uganda, fisher folk had 5 times higher rates of HIV/AIDS than truck drivers and sex workers, two high-risk groups. While degradation of natural resources enhance vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS in turn increase reliance on natural resources to meet increasing household needs that arise from having to cope with the effects of HIV/AIDS, as HIV/AIDS leads to loss of human capital, depleted financial and physical capital, increased vulnerability of community-based NRM institutions, and affects funding of NRM initiatives to HIV/AIDS related costs

ACCORDING TO UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines poverty-environment mainstreaming as the stepwise process of integrating poverty-environment linkages into development planning for poverty reduction and pro-poor growth at national, sector and local levels. To tackle this challenge, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have joined hands and launched the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI). Established in 2007, the PEI is a global UN programme that helps countries to integrate poverty-environment linkages into national and sub-national development planning, from policymaking to budgeting, implementation and monitoring.

PEI involves establishing the links between environment and poverty and identifying policies and programmes to bring about better pro-poor environmental management. It is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder effort targeted at influencing policymaking, budgeting, and implementation. It is based on the need to integrate the valuable contribution of environmental management to improved livelihoods, increased economic security and income opportunities for the poor - which is still largely overlooked in development planning and in the wider debate about development priorities. This framework has three phases with typically a cluster of tasks needed for each phase—for which a range of analytic tools can be used.

1. Preparatory Phase: Finding the Entry Points and Making the Case

The preparatory phase sets the stage for mainstreaming, focusing on activities designed to help countries identify entry points into the development planning process and to make a strong case for the importance of poverty-environment mainstreaming. Activities include conducting assessments of the country’s governmental, institutional, and political context as well as assessments that increase understanding of the nature of poverty-environment links. Raising awareness, building partnerships, assessing the institutional and capacity needs and setting up working mechanisms are also essential activities of the preparatory phase.

2. Phase 1: Mainstreaming Poverty-Environment Linkages into Policy Processes

The next phase of the programmatic approach is concerned with integrating poverty-environment linkages into policy processes and the resulting policy measures. This step targets a specific policy process—such as a national development plan or sector strategy—identified as an entry point as part of the preparatory phase described above.

The elements of Phase 1 include developing new and targeted analytical studies to provide country-specific evidence about the nature of poverty-environment linkages in the country. Armed with such evidence, practitioners are better able to identify priorities and craft the arguments necessary to have an impact on the targeted policy process (such as a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), Millennium Development Goal (MDG) strategy, or sector plan) and its associated documents. Once poverty-environment links have been integrated in the policy document, mainstreaming efforts continue with the development and initial costing of policy measures. These measures might be systemic interventions (such as fiscal measures) or they might be more narrowly focused, such as sector interventions (focusing for example on agricultural legislation, promotion of renewable energy, or the conservation of protected areas). Activities to strengthen institutions and capacities also occur throughout this phase.

3. Phase 2: Meeting the Implementation Challenge

The final, most sustained phase focuses on making poverty-environment mainstreaming operational through engagement in budgeting, implementation, and monitoring processes. These activities are aimed at ensuring that poverty-environment mainstreaming becomes established as normal procedure within the country. Meeting the implementation challenge calls for the integration of poverty-environment links in the national monitoring system. Phase 2 also requires engaging in budgeting processes to ensure that these processes incorporate the economic value of environment’s contribution to the national economy. Collaborating with sector and sub-national bodies to build their capacities to mainstream poverty-environment links within their work and effectively implement policy measures at various levels is also essential. In order to strengthen institutions and capacities in the long term, it is critical to establish poverty-environment mainstreaming as normal practice in government and administrative procedures, systems, and tools at all levels.

4. Indicators of Successful Environmental Mainstreaming:

■ Inclusion of poverty-environment linkages in national development and poverty reduction strategies.

■ Strengthened capacity within finance/planning ministries as well as environmental agencies to integrate environment into budget decision-making, sector strategies and implementation programmes.

■ Inclusion of poverty-environment linkages in sector planning and implementation strategies.

■ Strengthened capacity in key sector ministries to include environmental sustainability into their strategies.

■ Widened involvement of stakeholders in making the case for the importance of environment to growth and poverty reduction.

■ Improved domestic resource mobilization for poverty-environment investments.

■ Increased donor contributions to country-level environmentally sustainable investment.

■ Improved livelihoods and access to environmental and natural resources for the poor.

The “Sustainable Development” Approach

The emphasis on sustainability in NRM can be traced back to the natural resource conservation movement of the 19th century. This movement evolved in the 20th century and took on a more holistic and global recognition and development of a set of principles for sustainable development at the international level

many and confusing definitions of sustainable development abound, Pezzey (1989) states that “a development path is sustainable if total welfare does not decline along the path”. Critical to this definition is a realization that sufficient welfare functions through consumption, environmental quality, social equity, and other factors contributing to the quality of life (Adams, 2006; UN, 1987). This definition is broad enough to capture the essence of a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the natural resources. This is necessary so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come – intergenerational equity so to speak. The Bruntland Commission (Bruntland, 1987) first referred to sustainable development as one that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. For the sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources, this definition permits broad and rigorous characterization of resource exploitation (Hasna, 2007).

Sustainable development is, therefore, a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. Sustainability requires that human activity only use nature’s resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally.

It is clear that this definition is rooted in a systems thinking as it stresses the three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development, and environmental sustainability.

three essential dimensions of sustainable development are:

a. Economic: an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and avoid extreme sectoral imbalances that damage agricultural and/or industrial production.

b. Environmental: an environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base and avoid overexploitation of non-renewable resource systems, including maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability and ecosystems services not always looked upon as economic resources.

c. Social: a socially sustainable system must achieve fairness in distribution and opportunity among all persons with adequate provision of such social services as health, education and gender equity. The social dimension focuses on reconciliation of environment and development, and governance related to provision of social services.

The nested rings approach insists that the economy is dependent on society and the environment. Human and economic activities take place within the environment and the society, depend on and have an impact on the environment. A key issue for sustainable development is therefore the integration of different dimensions of sustainability, taking a holistic view and overcoming barriers between disciplines, ideologies and sectors.

CONTINGENT WITH MULTIPLE CRISIS

Despite this abundance of natural resources, deforestation, desertification, land degradation, water shortage and contamination, threat to biodiversity, and climate change are some of the many environmental problems that Africa experiences today. The combined effects of these multiple crises have serious consequences on the management of natural resources. This section summarizes some key highlights of these crises.

Deepening Poverty

Poverty and inequalities are deepening in many African countries. Africa has a large share of the proportions of the more than 1 billion poor people. The severity of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and the limited progress in reducing it indicate that the poorest in sub-Saharan Africa may be trapped in poverty. This has led to the revision of poverty line thresholds distinguishing three types of poverty: the medial poor (those living on less than $1 a day, the threshold defined by the international community as constituting extreme poverty), the subjacent poor ($0.75) and ultra poor ($0.50). Millions of the ultra poor- those living on less than 50 cents a day- are overwhelmingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (Ahmed et al., 2007). With this poverty trap, poverty begets poverty, and in the absence of other options, the poor people are heavily dependent on the use of natural resources for a significant part of their daily livelihoods.

Demographic Crisis

The rate of population growth in Africa is the most rapid: over 70% faster than in Asia (annual growth of 2.4% versus 1.4% in Asia, compared to the global average of 1.3% and only 0.3% in many industrialized countries). Africa’s population is projected to increase from about 770 million to nearly 1.7 billion by 2050. For example, the East Africa community (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi) together have a population of over 181 million, which is expected to grow by 66% over the next 25 years. Although this population will remain largely rural, demographic trends and environmental degradation are pushing a large number of people to migrate to rapidly growing urban slums that lack infrastructure and services for waste management, energy, water and sanitation. There is no doubt that this rapid population growth is exerting pressure on natural resources and increasing the number of poor and hungry people.

Food Crisis

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that in 2010, more than 1 billion people in the developing world are experiencing some form of shortage in food supply (Nelleman et al., 2009). FAO’s estimates show that the number of undernourished has risen in about 25 countries in Africa since 1990–92, presenting the continent with a major challenge in achieving the MDG targets of reducing hunger and extreme poverty by 2015. The Global Hunger Index further show that there is a higher concentration of hungry people in conflict and post conflict countries such as the DRC, Burundi, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, and in countries where natural resources are at great risk.

It is clear that the degradation of natural resources and global challenges such as climate change are some of the significant factors causing chronic food crises in Africa. Nelleman et al., (2009) discuss the environmental causes of this food crisis, including climate change.

Financial Crisis

The 2008-2009 financial crisis and economic depression have rendered millions of people less able to meet their food, health care, and education needs. The poor must now draw on depleted assets even more deeply, potentially creating poverty traps and negatively affecting longer-term environmental sustainability, food security and well-being (FAO, 2009). Although Africa was less seriously affected by the financial crisis, its negative impacts on the environment are considerable.

African Governments’ investments and policies are focusing on economic recovery, and less on environment and other social sectors. In many countries, important programmes have been suspended indefinitely as donor funding and government budgets are reduced or in deficit. The programmes targeting NRM have been lowered in government and international funding priority. Many international development agencies have been forced to reduce their NRM programmes.

Energy Crisis

Increased oil prices in 2007-2008 had far reaching consequences on the economy and the environment. This crisis led the world to focus attention on bio-fuels and other renewable energy sources.

Biofuels have grown quickly in demand and production, fuelled by high oil prices and the initial perception of their role in reducing CO2 emissions. The recent investment boom in biofuels is a notable trend that continues to raise some debate and controversies. Biofuels are seen by some as a strategic investment and an engine of economic growth, poverty reduction, access to clean energy, and environmental rehabilitation. Many view it as neo-colonial “land grab” that will benefit only international investors and local elites while displacing and dispossessing local communities of their lands and resources, destroying ecosystems and exacerbating water, food and/or ecological problems. Some Governments (like Uganda) have sought to de-gazette natural forests for biofuel plantations. Others, like in Mozambique and Tanzania, are fast-tracking conversion of vast areas endowed with natural resources for biofuels production as a solution to energy shortages. In Ethiopia, 1.15 million hectares are either granted to foreign companies or are under negotiation for biofuels production.

Governance Crisis

Natural resources can, and often do, provoke conflicts within societies as different groups; factions fight for the control and exploitation of resources and their revenues. In his book, The Bottom Billion, Collier (2007) demonstrates that many African countries are trapped in a “natural resource curse and conflict traps”. The resource curse (also known as the paradox of plenty) refers to the paradox that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. Moreover, they tend to experience conflicts and civil wars. More than half the world’s conflicts in 1999 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2007). At least ten countries in Eastern and Central Africa have been affected by conflict or political instability in recent years. In some African countries (DRC, Angola, Nigeria, and Sudan) access to resource revenues by belligerents was responsible for prolonging conflicts and civil wars, and is a major threat to poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Environmental Crisis

Figure 1.6 gives examples of some of the important environmental crises or problems in Africa. These include: forest degradation, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, threat to wildlife, climate change, looming water crisis, etc

Land Degradation

The Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) reports that degraded soils amount to about 494 millions hectares (ha) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This represents 65% of SSA’s agricultural land that is degraded because of water and soil erosion, chemical and physical degradation (Oldeman et al., 1991 in Bationo, 2009). This represents an estimated loss of US$ 42 billion in income and 6 billion ha of productive land every year due to land degradation and declining agricultural productivity. In Zimbabwe, soil erosion alone results in an annual loss of N and P totalling US$1.5 billion. In South Africa, 29% of the country suffered land degradation, affecting about 17 million people, or 38% of the South African population (Bai and Dent, 2007). The productivity of some lands has declined by 50% due to soil erosion and desertification. The annual cost of desertification is estimated at US$ 9.3 billion.

Water Crisis

Water scarcity will affect over 1.8 billion people by 2025 (AWDR, 2007). Within the next 15 to 20 years, the area considered to have relative water security in Africa will fall from nearly 53% to 35%, affecting some 600 million people. According to some estimates, by 2025, up to 16% of Africa’s population (230 million people) will be living in countries facing water scarcity, and 32% (460 million people) in water-stressed countries (IAASTD, 2009). One major factor beyond agricultural, industrial and urban consumption of water is the destruction of watersheds and natural water towers, such as forests in watersheds and wetlands, which also serve as flood buffers (Gichuki, 2002). Watersheds are already heavily populated and cultivated, in ways that have reduced water infiltration and storage and increased soil erosion and sedimentation of dams. Serious conflicts are anticipated between water demand for agriculture and industrial use critical for economic development for hydroelectric power, and for local day-to-day use by rural and urban populations (Gichuki, 2002; Rosegrant, 2002).

Deforestation

Agenda 21 (Para 11.10) states:

Forests worldwide are being threatened by uncontrolled degradation and conversion to other forms of land uses, influenced by increasing human needs; agricultural expansion; and environmentally harmful mismanagement, including: lack of forest fire control, anti-poaching measures, unsustainable commercial logging, overgrazing, airborne pollutants, economic incentives, and activities of other sectors of the economy. The impacts of loss and degradation of forests are in the form of soil erosion, loss of biological diversity, damage to wild habitats and degradation of waters the leaves of Marantaceae plants held areas, deterioration of the quality of life, and reduction of the options for development.

It is estimated that every year, nearly 17 million hectares of tropical rain forests are destroyed, thousands of irreplaceable plant varieties are lost, and millions of hectares of land turn into deserts. Deforestation causes loss of resources, loss of ecological function (e.g., carbon sequestration, hydrological function) and loss of biodiversity. A study has estimated that the global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis: the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 and $5 trillion. This is much more than Wall Street’s earlier loss of about $1 to $1.5 trillion

Land Grab

The convergence of global crises in food, energy, finance and the environment has led to a scramble for Africa’s farmlands which are increasingly perceived as sources of alternative energy (primarily biofuels), food crops, mineral deposits (new and old) and reservoirs of environmental services. This has been commonly referred to as “land grab’ to describe the current explosion of (trans) national commercial land transactions revolving around the production and sale of food and biofuels, conservation and mining activities (von Braun and Meinzen-Dick, 2009). Bass et al., (2009) suggest that the next decade will see a continuation of massive assetstripping and environmental degradation, the result of local and foreign elites driving land conversion to agriculture and poorly regulated extractive industries. Increasing demand for Africa’s natural resources presents new and difficult challenges, but also new opportunities. It is feared that this scramble for Africa’s farmland will dispossess communities and will have negative impacts on ecosystems and livelihoods in countries with weak regulations and governance systems (Friis and Reenberg, 2010).

Loss of Biodiversity

Africa is losing large amounts of biodiversity due to population pressure and associated exploitation of natural resources. Loss of forest biodiversity is due both to the total loss of forest cover (deforestation), as well as to the loss of biodiversity components within forest (degradation). The International Year (2010) of Biodiversity has a target of “achieving by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national levels as a contribution to poverty alleviation and for the benefit of all life on Earth”.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In Africa, development and sustainable livelihoods remain the key goal in poverty reduction and in reversing degradation of natural resources. This recognizes the complex challenges of linking NRM to development in a rapidly changing continent and the world at large. This chapter explored the different concepts and paradigms on NRM-Development nexus, and provided insights on the development challenges and opportunities in the region. Managing natural resources for development in Africa requires a fundamental paradigm shift that emphasizes the complexity of NRM-Development dynamics, entitlements and capabilities. This advocates for a shift from the conventional orthodox view that presents poverty as a major cause of environmental degradation. This causal link is too simplistic and the nexus between NRM and development is governed by a complex web of factors. We advocate for a balance between development and sustainability and broaden the concept of sustainable development to take a more people-centred approach based on the sustainable livelihood approach. In the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, poor people and resource user communities have the capacity to develop institutions and strategies to regulate the use of natural resources, prevent their degradation and improve their management. Given the multiple crises and increasing pressures on natural resources faced by African countries, we advocate for a resilience-based management approach to emphasize the key role of resilience in fostering adaptation and renewal to sustain the supply and opportunities to harness natural resources for human wellbeing in face of rapid change and uncertainty.

Development priorities should be based on a good understanding of the challenges and opportunities, as well as scenarios and prospects in the region. Designing projects, policies and research requires an appreciation and integration of the different dimensions of sustainability and livelihoods, focusing on particular NRM challenges in specific areas, with specific communities, and providing an encompassing and integrated framework for implementing and promoting solutions for livelihoods improvement in the face of rapid degradation of natural resources.

It is clear that Managing natural resources for development in Africa requires integrated, multi-sectorial, multi-institutional, multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approaches that can resolve the often conflicting objectives and uncoordinated strategies by different sectors that contribute to the degradation of natural resources. A new approach to natural resource management must be developed so that new management systems can be tailored and adapted in a site-specific way to highly variable and diverse farm conditions typical of resource-poor farmers. Management options should be integrated as far as possible. NRM brings both challenges and opportunities for managers, resource users, and policy makers to make informed decisions that enhance sustainability of our planet. Since NRM processes are multi-stakeholder – incorporating the public and private sectors, communities, non-governmental and local organizations, donors and individual entrepreneurs – it is important to have clear governance systems and policies that balance development, equity and environmental sustainability. That follow, these issues will be explored in more details in terms of socio-ecological resilience , integrated natural resource management , community-based natural resource management , gender and natural resource management , adaptation to climate change , programmes and project management , policy and governance and innovations in research for NRM