by Piet-Louis Grundling
The inhabitants of southern Africa and indeed the whole of Africa depend heavily on water derived from wetlands in general. Be it rural communities depending on water from the Kufue wetlands in Zambia, subsistence farmers in the swampforests of Mozambique, or the urban dwellers in the heavily populated and industrialised Gauteng province of South Africa tapping water from the Alpine mires of Lesotho via the Lesotho Highlands water transfer scheme.
Resource Exploitation
A sad fact of life in Africa, however, is that we are degrading and destroying these life support systems on which we depend for our own survival. Exploitation of natural resources is taking place at an alarming rate. However, this exploitation is not only restricted to urbanisation, industrialisation, or exports to the developed world. Overpopulation and a collapse of cultural values have led to the over exploitation of many of our natural resources on a subsistence level. Mires have not been excluded from this. It has been shown that historically subsistence agriculture (cultivation and grazing) on mires took place in a sustained and controlled manner in parts of southern Africa for centuries.
Unique features
It has been widely acknowledged that mires and peatlands are rare and unique features of the southern African landscape. Peatlands contribute to the rich diversity of wetlands in southern Africa. These range from the dynamic papyrus fens in the Okavango Delta (the largest inland delta in the world), to the coastal tropical forested peatlands of Mosambique and South Africa, to the reed/sedge dominated percolation mires on the Highveld plateau in the southern African interior, and the Alpine fens and bogs of Lesotho. Although sensitive, these mires are also very robust and forgiving. Giving limited use and time they have the ability to restore themselves to some extent with limited loss in functions. The current level of pressure is, however, proven to be fatal.
Solutions?
Is the picture sketched above too pessimistic?
Perhaps – some people would say that the current demographics will solve population pressure. These include, amongst others, increased urbanisation in the region and mortality due to AIDS. Others would point out that the latest environmental legislation in South Africa (amongst others the internationally acclaimed National Water Act of 1998) and the formation of regional and international policies in partnerships, such as the Southern African Development Community and the New Partneship for African Development, would support the conservation and wise-use of natural resources.
Footprints
Nothing, however, could be further removed from the truth. Mortality due to AIDS must never be regarded as a solution for our environmental problems. Population demographics are dynamic and it is only a matter of time before the human race will make up for the loss of life. Urbanisation might relieve some pressure on rural areas but the impact on mires near urban areas comes with an intensity of its own. The human footprints around urban areas are expanding all the time. For example, the footprint of the urban South African consumer is not only evident in the cultivated degraded peat swampforests of the Lowveld or Maputaland; or the desiccated mined fens of the Highveld, or the soon to be flooded Watervalvley at Braamhoek, but also in the trampled and eroded mires of Lesotho. The recent drought has exposed the vulnerability of peatlands to over exploitation of the aquifer they depend on. Uncontrolled and commercial afforestation in some catchments has had a highly negative effect on groundwater and wetlands alike.
The mires all have one thing in common: they are located in rural areas far from the urban hubs in southern Africa, but are all being degraded due to a demand for a range of mire related products ranging from fruit such as bananas, to peat, energy, and water.
Our role
The question needs to be asked if we as informed scientists or decision makers are making a difference. Our failure as scientists to quantify and promote the economic value of these mires and the goods and services they deliver and the government’s lack of commitment and capacity in administering current laws and policies has steadily undermine the threshold of peatlands in southern Africa.
Our new legislation might mandate a major redistribution of costs and benefits in using aquatic ecosystem resources, but it is our current failure in achieving co-operative governance in implementing, monitoring, and enforcing legislation which has brought us to the brink of the final phase in the extinction of peatlands in southern Africa.
Can we still make a difference?
There are still areas with pristine mires on the sub-continent. There are still opportunities. The IMCG has initiated and supported various projects (IMPESA and Maputaland) in the region to promote awareness and the wise-use of mire. These projects have certainly being successful in raising the profile of mires on a local and even a regional level. However, the IMCG has passed 2 resolutions during the last two General Assembly meeting (Canada, 2000 and France, 2002) dealing with some of these issues in South Africa and the reaction from the political sphere of the South African society was not very encouraging. Officials on local and provincial level need no convincing, but the political will lacks when it comes to national departments to take the necessary steps in ensuring the future of our mires
IMCG Resolutions
The role of the IMCG and the resolutions we pass needs to be re-evaluated. We need to consider that the dynamics in governments and sense of responsibility towards the environment differs substantially between developed and developing countries. One could use resolutions to call on the conscience of responsible governments in the developed world. They and their administrators understand the cultivated language and scientific arguments we use, but it seems that this is not what works in the developing world.
Another approach is needed. One that takes the direct dependency of rural communities on the resource into consideration. Or perhaps one where money does the talking, in other words goods and services are quantified in terms of monetary value. Or a bottom-up approach where projects are started at the community/local level, benefits from wise-use are visible, and the value of mires slowly percolates to the top. Or….?
We will have to reposition ourselves if we as the IMCG want to be an effective instrument outside the developed world. Can we still make a difference? I believe we can. Time is limited and the question we need to answer is how.
Ubuntu
Ultimately, it is the spirit of ubuntu (in unity and humility) between scientists, government, and society on which we will have to depend when we face the challenges to secure the future of these and other aquatic ecosystems.
Piet-Louis Grundling, Working for Wetlands Programme, National Botanical Institute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa. Tel: +27 12 804 3200, Fax: +27 12 804 3166, Mobile: + 27 (0) 83 231 3489. E-mail: peatland@mweb.co.za.
REGISTER
Please fill out the IMCG membership registration form.
Surf to http://www.imcg.net or contact the secretariat.