It will be interesting to our readers to note that the JCTR’s Task Force on the Integrity of Creation is now in place. This Task Force, coordinated by Roland Lesseps, S.J., of Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre, includes a mix of persons interested in environmental issues. Some of its envisioned activities are the carrying out research on issues such as deforestation, the relationship between environment and people's daily lives, the link between poverty and environmental degradation, etc. We will, of course, move beyond research to education and advocacy.
Talking about the link between poverty and environmental degradation, there have been serious arguments that poverty causes environmental degradation and that environmental degradation causes poverty. This is the challenge of the poverty-environmental degradation nexus. To a large extent, if not entirely, the two reinforce each other in ways that worsen the situation at all levels. Let’s take one dimension of poverty and see how it relates to environmental degradation.
In both Zambia and Malawi, it is increasingly becoming the case that subsistence farmers, because of their worsening household economic situations -- lack of agricultural inputs for production of food, lack of income, lack of good markets, etc. -- have resorted to other income generating activities. One common alternative chosen by these peasant farmers is charcoal burning. But this is an activity harming the environment and will eventually disadvantage them.
The immediate tragedy of charcoal burning is the obviously known deforestation. Once the woodland is wiped out, it is the local people again who will have to bear the brunt of walking long distances in search of fuel wood. In addition deforestation has such bad effects as soil erosion which in turn leads to poor soils, soils that cannot support agricultural activities. In this scenario, poverty drives people to damage the environmental situation and this damaged environmental situation drives people into poverty.
It is against this background that JCTR feels our Task Force on the integrity of Creation must strive to contribute towards deeper analysis and understanding of environmental problems in Zambia and Malawi as well as beyond our borders. We know, for example, that industrialised countries and their output of carbon dioxide generate some of the serious environmental problems Africa is facing today, such as the consequences of global warming.
We are interested to hear from you, our readers, about this important topic.
Muweme
Muweme
Editor
Table of Contents | Bulletin 48 Articles
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