ENVIRONMENT: Conservationists Raise Red Warning Flags All over Mozambique

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MAPUTO, Feb 14 2003 (IPS) - How far will Mozambique go with its promising economic recovery if the price is a damaged environment, nature conservationists are asking?

”From a proposed new highway that will devastate the rainforest in the Inhambane province, to the potential destruction of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean, sacrificed to shipping, mining and tourism, red warning flags are being raised all over this beautiful country,” conservationist Manuel Chissano told IPS.

Chissano, who is unrelated to Mozambique’s pro-development president Joaquim Chissano, feels the old trade-off between investment and jobs at the expense of a pristine environment is playing out in his country.

He is not alone. Conservationists in South Africa and Europe are also keeping an eye on developments in this green and tropical nation of 19 million people, with its abundant natural resources, productive agricultural land and 2,740 kilometres of tourist-enticing Indian Ocean coastline.

Mozambique is making a strong comeback from two decades of civil war, which was followed by years of divisive political violence. Known as the world’s poorest nation a decade ago, Mozambique saw its gross domestic product (GDP) plunge from 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in 1981 to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 1991. But a subsequent rebound has risen GDP to 4 billion U.S. dollars last year.

However, people are still poor, with 41 percent of urban populations living below the poverty line, compared to 32 percent of urban populations who are poor in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

President Chissano is determined to raise standards of living for his people. His government is encouraged by the international interest foreign investors are showing his nation. Australia has been a key player in the aluminum smelting Mozal plant outside Maputo, the capital. Zimbabwe’s political woes have seen an influx of farmers from that nation arrive to rehabilitate farmland long dormant during years of civil strife.

South Africa is a major trading and investment partner. Last year, Mozambique replaced Zimbabwe as South Africa’s foremost trading partner in Africa.

South African business people in the tourism sector are particularly interested in Mozambique’s costal areas as potential resort locations. South African tourists are arriving in greater numbers via a new Johannesburg to Maputo toll way, which has also facilitated shipping and commercial activity between the countries.

But plans for a second highway, to be used almost exclusively by tourists, have brought to the forefront the clash between environmental and business interests.

Conservation authorities are disturbed by the prospect of a highway to be constructed through the Limpopo Transfrontier ”mega-park”. The park incorporates South Africa’s Kruger National Park and several Mozambican game parks and conservation areas. The ”mega-park’s” northern extremity leads into Zimbabwe.

The toll road will cut through Kruger Park, according to the governor of the Inhambane province, Aires Aly, when he announced the highway last month. The goal is to bring tourists directly to coastal resorts at Mapinhane. That Indian Ocean resort town is experiencing a boom, and water transport quickly carries visitors to facilities on several islands offshore.

South African environmentalists are furious, and say a law that prohibits highway construction through parks like Kruger will block the plan. Political observers, noting the business and tourism rewards to be reaped from the highway, are not so sure the law will stand in the way.

Ted Reilly, the top nature conservationists in neighbouring Swaziland, which borders Mozambique, watched as Hlane Royal Game Park, the country’s largest that he supervises, was sliced in two by a highway. ”In the end, it is extremely difficult to counter powerful business interests when they are linked to politicians. At Hlane, we protested that you can’t bisect a game park without sacrificing the lives of animals. We were right. The environmental damage has been tremendous, all so that trucks from the surrounding sugar cane plantations can shave a few kilometres off their routes. Each year, hundreds of valuable animals have been killed crossing the highway,” he says.

The Transfrontier Park is already experiencing animal conservation difficulties. In Zimbabwe, there are widespread reports of wholesale poaching of game animals due to the breakdown of law and the economy in that country.

”South Africa gave Mozambique several dozen elephants to restock their parks. The Mozambique elephants had been poached out of existence. But elephants have superior homing instincts, and every one of them migrated right back to South Africa,” Reilly told IPS.

A test on government’s commitment to environmentalism will be how Mozambique will weigh its desire to increase tourism against the need to preserve a beautiful environment, which is one reason tourists come in the first place.

”The country has several pressing environmental challenges,” Amando Mondlane, a tour operator in Maputo, told IPS. ”We have tens of thousands of land mines left over from the civil war. These make parts of the countryside no-go areas. The port of Maputo needs renovation, and industrial polluters cannot be given a license to dump chemicals wherever they choose.”

In terms of government’s commitment to environmentalism via international accords, Mozambique’s record is good. The country is a party to global treaties dealing with biodiversity, climate change, desertification, endangered species, hazardous wastes, ozone layer protection, and the ocean-conserving Law of the Sea. Importantly, these accords were not only signed by Chissano, but were ratified by the National Assembly, making them also the laws of the country.

Mozambique’s economic recovery has seen exports more than double between 1991 and 2001, from 16 billion U.S. dollars to 42 billion U.S. dollars. Conservationists do not deny the importance of economic improvement, especially for poverty eradication. But they are determined that it not be done at the expense of a Southern African tropical paradise that boasts of some of the world’s most impressive coral reefs.