By Cynthia Chichewo
Harare – As the threat of climate change and land degradation continues to escalate in Southern Africa, youths are urging for collective action to address the devastating impacts on small-holder farmers and the environment.
“The climate change we are experiencing in the country, regionally and globally are human-induced, hence there is a need for collective action for deliberate mainstreaming of climate change and environmental issues within political, economic, social, technological, and environmental spheres in the country,” said Rutendo Ndoro, President of the Interact Club at Northwest High School.
Ndoro commended the government’s efforts in establishing specialized courts to deal with environmental breaches but called for harsher penalties for corporate bodies and local authorities that flout environmental management laws.
“We call upon the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife to ensure that more deterrent fines are put in place to punish corporate bodies and local authorities found guilty of flouting environment management laws. Substantial fines will send the right signal to all potential flouters of environment management laws and thus support our National Clean Up Campaign initiative and other initiatives by government and the private sector focused on keeping our environment clean,” she said.
Dr. Alemneh Dejene, World Vision USA Project Leader, emphasized the need for nature-based solutions for climate resilience and ecosystem preservation.
“Land degradation is related to poverty, marginalized and small-holder farmers continue to be affected. Due to climate change, ecosystem health is rapidly declining, 1 million species threatened and facing extinction. We need to come up with nature-based solutions for climate resilience and ecosystem preservation because without such initiatives, Southern Africa will become drier, leading to considerable challenges in water availability especially in marginalized communities and small-scale farmers,” he warned.
