HARARE, June 10 (NewsDay Live)- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zimbabwe and its development partner, Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELO) have jointly launched a new project aimed at promoting environmentally and socially responsible mining in Zimbabwe, while ensuring that local communities benefit from their resources.
The five-year regional initiative, led by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
It was officially launched in Harare on Wednesday, with participants drawn from government ministries, local authorities, mining companies, civil society organisations, development partners, academia,community representatives and the media.
The regional project seeks to support Southern African countries in developing sustainable and inclusive value chains for energy transition minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper and rare earth minerals, which
are critical for renewable energy technologies, electric vehicles and battery storage systems.
In Zimbabwe, the project is being implemented by WWF Zimbabwe and ZELO and will focus on Hwange and Binga districts, which are part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier
Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). The two districts have been selected because of increasing
mining activities, particularly lithium mining in Kamativi which results in massive land degradation.
While mining presents significant opportunities for Zimbabwe's economic growth, contributing about 80% of export earnings, 19% of government revenue and 12% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), concerns have been raised over environmental degradation, deforestation, water pollution, land degradation and limited benefits to the host local communities.
The project seeks to rope in environmental management agencies, local authorities, local communities, civil society,
academia and mining companies towards strengthening responsible mining practices through
community participation in environmental decision-making, , benefit sharing mechanisms
and restoration efforts.
It also seeks to strengthen community participation in environmental monitoring and decisionmaking around mining activities by training local environmental monitors who will regularly collect and report data on mining-related impacts to protect community
health and livelihoods.
Stakeholders are expected to identify and support community-led rehabilitation, remediation and restoration plans
of selected degraded mining sites. Strengthening of human-wildlife conflict management systems and crafting nof inclusive benefit-sharing models in mining-affected areas have also been cited as key result areas.
Stakeholders involved in the project pledged to support skills development of women and youth from targeted communities in
technical and vocational education and training programmes.
