Report on State of Environment Discussed

25 May 2011

analysis

Maputo — Mozambique’s Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Action has warned of growing pressure on the country’s natural resources, despite the government’s attempts to reverse this trend.

The warning was given by Deputy Environment Minister Ana Paulo Chichava at the end of Tuesday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) which analysed a “Report on the State of the Environment in Mozambique”.

This document, the first of its kind, contains an exhaustive compilation of information, both positive and negative, on environmental issues, providing data that can be used for the taking of decisions on environmental policy.

“The report provides information on the current state of natural resources”, said Chichava. “It also looks at the causes of climate change”.

Chichava admitted that the document was far from complete. For example, the government does not yet possess the means to measure air quality.

She said that the government intends to set up an environmental quality agency and laboratory, and that financial support of 10.3 million euros (about 14.5 million US dollars) has been promised from the European Union, which will include training and equipment.

Industrial development put pressure on the urban environment, she said, which was why the government now demands environmental management plans from any new industry, in order to ensure that any negative impacts can be mitigated.

The fact that 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, she said, was putting strong pressure on land, and on forestry resources, particularly in the southern provinces of Gaza and Maputo, where deforestation is easily visible. Trees are disappearing in the ceaseless hunt for firewood and charcoal.

Chichava told reporters that the government is doing all it can to mitigate this situation, notably through measures of reforestation, She pointed in particular to the tree planting initiative spearheaded by President Armando Guebuza himself, under the slogan “One Child, One Tree; One Community Leader, One Forest”.

Under this campaign, an attempt is being made to ensure that every schoolchild in the country plants at least one tree a year.

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