By Prof. Peter H. Katjavivi, MP
ONE of the great advocates of environmental conservation, the late Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya, had this to say; “In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.” The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. You cannot sustain the economy if you don’t take care of the environment, because we know that the resources that we use whether it is oil, energy, land are the basis on which development thrives. The indiscriminate cutting-down of trees especially in the developing world is resulting in “drought, malnutrition, famine and death,” which has had dire consequences with a ripple effect. It is a great honour for Namibia and Africa to host the 11th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Namibia’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Uahekua Herunga, has during this event, taken over the presidency of COP 11 from Dr Don Koo Lee of South Korea. This event particularly rekindles Africa’s affection with its own heroes and heroines in the area of environmental conservation, who have laid the path for progress for new generations. The work and sacrifices of these great personalities of Africa will continue to inspire people from all over the world for a long time to come. We should therefore resolve to carry their good work forward, by not only protecting the environment, but also improving environmental governance.
The UNCCD COP 11 is specifically aimed at improving the living conditions of people in dry, arid countries, maintaining and restoring land soil productivity and mitigating the effects of the worldwide drought. Probably, there could never have been a better elaborative environment to host this UNCCD COP 11 than the ‘Land of the Brave’ whose harsh environment speaks it all. Namibia is currently experiencing its worst drought in over 30 years. Professor Uwe Holtz in “Implementing the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification from a parliamentary point of view: Critical assessment and challenges ahead” – written for the 7th Parliamentarians Forum on the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, highlights that the greatest challenges towards implementing UNCCD as being climate change, conflicts, migration, good governance, financial issues, and greater visibility and higher ranking on the political agenda. Indeed, these are issues at the core of the role of national parliaments.
The 9th Session of the UNCCD Round Table for Parliamentarians was hosted on the 13th and 14th of October 2011, in Changwon, Gyeognam Province in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), under the theme – The Role of Members of Parliament in the efforts to combat desertification: parliamentary contributions to achieving global sustainability through effective sustainable land management and to implementing the UNCCD Ten-Year Strategy. Namibia was well represented at this conference by both a parliamentary delegation and a government delegation. This Round Table was part of the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and it saw the passing of a declaration by Members of Parliament.
Since then, the UNCCD Secretariat has gone further to produce a Statute of the Forum of Parliamentarians in the Context of the UNCCD. This Statute has 17 Articles and Article 3 specifically calls upon parliaments within the UNCCD to achieve specific objectives including, but not limited to, forming a specialized unit to promote and contribute to greater involvement by parliamentarians in fulfilling national commitments towards environmental conservation and the fight against desertification and land degradation. We are glad to note that besides having a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics and Natural Resources with an oversight role, the Namibian Parliament has gone a step further to form the Namibian Conservation Parliamentary Caucus (NACOPAC).
The International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) Conservation Council of Nations (CCN) together with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Coalition Facility (GCF) on August 15-18, 2011 hosted an Inter-parliamentary Conference on Conservation and Sustainable Development at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa. The strongest recommendation of the conference was for national parliaments to each form a Parliamentary Conservation Caucus that would contribute to greater involvement in conservation and the sustainable development agenda as well as liaise with other parliamentary caucuses on matters of common interest in conservation and sustainable development.
The ICCF is non-partisan and is headquartered in the USA. The CCN is a powerful global network of partner nations organized to establish and foster global diplomatic and parliamentary relationships with ICCF’s strong base of partners and government leaders. It exists to establish an international network that includes nations with the knowledge and expertise to address biodiversity and habitat loss and the consequences they may have on future generations. These nations aim to use natural resources in a sustainable fashion with the smallest environmental footprint in order to facilitate economic development.
Zambia and Namibia besides South Africa are amongst countries that have gone through with the recommendation of the Shamwari Conference 2011, to each form a Parliamentary Conservation Caucus. This is how NACOPAC has come into existence. NACOPAC comprises of Namibian Parliamentarians who cherish conservation irrespective of party affiliation.
Constitutionally, Namibia is committed to uphold environmental welfare. While we have clearly articulated policies, the challenge is to come up with properly targeted goals to achieve environmental aims. It is only in the light of these that we can carry out a concrete evaluation of our interventions. Case in point – persistent droughts have become a norm in Namibia, yet we see no foreseeable end to this challenge. Equally, annual floods that often find their way into northern Namibia and yet their waters go to waste is another challenge that calls for a long-term solution. We hope Namibia can work with the rest of the international community to continue to positively strengthen its endeavours in curbing desertification. As Honourable Uahekua Herunga, MP, Minister of Environment and Tourism, noted in his address to UNCCD COP 11 on 16 September 2013, indeed a paradigm shift within the UNCCD process has arrived for setting baselines and targets and the mobilization of all stakeholders for the enhanced implementation of the convention.
When you have the environment degraded, you must not deal only with the symptoms but rather, you have to get to the root causes through environmental rehabilitation and empowering people to determine their destiny. For we believe that what is done for the people without involving them cannot be sustainable. The future of the planet concerns all of us, so we should do what we can to protect it. Indeed, one does not need formal education to be able to plant a tree! When you plant a sapling, it looks so fragile but within a very short time it becomes a huge tree possibly giving you shade, fruit, watershed functions, building materials, and/or income from sellable items (timber and non-timber forest products). Trees are therefore able to build and transform lives.
In 1995, Professor Wangari Maathai said: “We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. To do so effectively, the world needs a global ethic with values which give meaning to life experiences and, more than religious institutions and dogmas, sustain the non-material dimension of humanity. Mankind’s universal values of love, compassion, solidarity, caring and tolerance should form the basis for this global ethic which should permeate culture, politics, trade, religion and philosophy. It should also permeate the extended family of the United Nations. In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, so as to reach a higher moral ground. That time is now.”
I agree with those who are saying the time has come to move beyond political agreements and let this conference produce concrete and implementable recommendations.