 |
| Collecting
increasing amounts of timber has been one of the many impacts of AIDS in
Africa
|
The
sadness of the loss caused by HIV/AIDS in most parts of rural Africa
now goes beyond loss of humankind. As
the disease continues to plague Africa, recent research says that natural
resources are also being lost due to unsustainable harvesting of herbs that are
believed to cure the disease or due to poverty created by loss of breadwinners,
forcing unemployed survivors to support themselves through excessive
exploitation of natural resources.
In
what is clearly a vicious cycle of destruction of human life and the natural
resources that support our existence, Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group
(ABCG)-funded research established that “negative HIV/AIDS impacts on the
management and conservation of natural resources is of a high magnitude in East
and
Southern Africa
.”
Presenting
the findings of the research conducted in affected rural communities in
Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Uganda, Dr. Jane
Dwasi, a law lecturer at University of Nairobi, Kenya and Attorney at Law said,
“The impact of HIV/AIDS on Africa’s environment could be demonstrated by an
increase in timber consumption for coffins in areas such as in Kisumu, Kenya.
In some areas, medicinal plants have been harvested unsustainably.
Increased poaching and gathering of wild foods can also increase, as
affected people cannot perform heavy labor for agriculture.”
 |
|
Africa
’s coffin-making industry is booming as a result of the AIDS crisis
|
Dr.
Dwasi said that in almost every trading centre in Sub-Saharan Africa there is a
booming coffin-making industry.
Dr.
Dwasi presented the findings of her research during the first week of June at
the 4th Regional Global Biodiversity Forum (GBF) for East and Southern Africa
countries held in Darussalam, Tanzania.
Participants
to the workshop said that most of rural
Africa
's trees are now being lost because of high rates of
AIDS-related
deaths occurring in rural communities. When someone
dies in rural
Africa
a lot of wood fuel or firewood is consumed when food is
prepared for a big number of people. Men also stay up all night outside by the
fireside, meaning that more wood is consumed for heating. Most African families
spend an average of five days mourning their loved ones, and with it the loss of
trees.
Workshop
participants noted that “most of the people who are dying are breadwinners and
when they die their dependents become poorer and demand a lot from the
environment to secure their livelihoods” through activities such as timber
poaching and selling huge amounts of timber. Others turn to environmentally
degrading activities such as gold panning, impacting negatively on the
environment. They noted that most donors were now pouring money into HIV/AIDS
programmes, making most African conservation programmes become poorly funded.
Loss
of Traditional Knowledge
Dr.
Dwasi noted that deaths of people with information on traditional conservation
methods also meant loss in knowledge on traditional natural resource management.
In most African communities, traditional knowledge on the management of natural
resources is passed from one generation to another, especially from parents to
their children.
For
example, the knowledge of traditional methods of wildlife tracking and counting
has been passed from generation to generation.
Similarly, knowledge on medicinal plants, which ensures conservation of
the plants, is passed from one generation to the next. Such knowledge is
acquired by children from their parents in the ordinary course of household life
and family activities.
However,
Dr. Dwasi said because many people were dying of
HIV/AIDS at an early age and leaving many orphans behind, “the knowledge is
dying with them without reaching the younger generation.”
Dr. Dwasi said this was eroding the basis of traditional methods of
natural resource management and conservation.
She
said, “For example, without the knowledge of how certain medicinal plants are
utilized, there is likely to be little incentive to invest in sustainable
management of medicinal plant sources, and this might affect biological
diversity.”
Loss
of Trees and Plants
Contributing
to the discussion on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the environment at the 4th
Regional Session of GBF, Mr. Kule Chitepo, the Executive Director of
ResourceAfrica, a South Africa-based conservation agency, said some rural
communities of that country’s Limpopo Province were losing trees at an
alarming rate due to the rapid cutting down of trees for firewood or fuel wood
that Africa communities “use day and night to cook food and warm themselves
while mourning their loved ones who have died of AIDS.” Mr. Chitepo said most
of the communities in the
Limpopo
Province
were losing an average of 20 people per month.
Meanwhile,
Mrs. Grace Masuku, a representative of a rural community neighboring
South Africa
’s famous
Sun City
deplored the loss of medicinal plants that many
people believe can cure HIV-AIDS related illness through over-harvesting. She
said, “African communities have always valued natural resources as they
breathe life into us through curing different types of illness and they also
serve as sources of our livelihoods.”
Dr.
Dwasi said through interviews with community members, including traditional
healers in the three countries, her study on the impact of HIV/AIDS on
Africa
’s environment found “that there are numerous
plants with medicinal properties that are used by local communities.”
“In
many places, especially in poor rural communities such as Caprivi, Namibia, the
use and harvesting of medicinal plants has increased due to increased incidents
of HIV/AIDS-related ailments, especially to treat opportunistic infections,”
said Dr. Dwasi. “In these places, the improper collection methods and
accelerated rates of harvesting are threatening to deplete these medicinal
plants and other non-timber forest products.”
However,
Dr. Dwasi said among communities living adjacent to Bwindi and Mgahinga National
Parks in
Uganda
, the use of medicinal plants had declined due to
increased reliance on conventional medicine and the establishment of clinics in
the communities with the help of NGOs such as CARE International.
Over-Harvesting
of Wildlife
 |
|
Many Africans wrongly believe that turtle eggs can cure HIV/AIDS
|
Elsewhere,
Dr. Dwasi’s research on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the environment established
that in Kwazulu Natal in
South Africa
, incorrect information and myth that
eating turtle eggs cures people of HIV/AIDS or provides a source of protein had
led people to go on turtle egg hunting rampages even in some marine reserves
managed by Kwazulu Natal Wildlife. “Turtle
eggs are collected for their personal use and for commercial sale throughout
South Africa
,” said Dr. Jane.
“During interviews, Kwazulu Natal Wildlife officials stated that this
has drastically reduced turtle populations in the affected areas.
There is fear that the over-harvesting might extinguish turtle
populations and affect biological diversity.”
She
noted that
South Africa
’s turtle situation was comparable to
the over-harvesting of the “African potato” in
Zimbabwe
in the belief that the potato “is a
cure for AIDS.” Although the
“African potato” does not cure AIDS, it has been found to have medicinal
properties that are effective against some HIV/AIDS-related ailments
(opportunistic infections).
Institutional
Policies
The
study also found that many government conservation agencies, NGOs, and
communities recognized HIV/AIDS as a serious threat to conservation and natural
resource management activities, although the degrees of openness about the issue
varied.
Dr.
Dwasi said, “Many institutions feel overwhelmed by the problem and do not know
what to do; there was a strong sense of isolation and helplessness.
Some feel it is a problem for the health sector and not the conservation
sector, though that attitude is changing.”
Her
research also established that few conservation institutions have developed
strategies to cope with the pandemic including KwaZulu Natal Wildlife in
South Africa
, World Wide Fund for Nature's Eastern Africa
Regional Programme Office in
Kenya
, Namibia Nature Foundation and Integrated Rural
Development and Nature Conservation in
Namibia
, and CARE-International in
Uganda
. These
strategies should be shared for the benefit of other institutions that are
considering how to best address the impacts of HIV/AIDS on natural resources
management.
KwaZulu
Natal Wildlife
 |
| KwaZulu
Natal Wildlife has implemented many strategies to minimize the impacts of
AIDS on the region’s biodiversity
|
Of
the government agencies surveyed, KwaZulu Natal Wildlife has implemented the
most comprehensive HIV/AIDS intervention strategies to prevent or minimize the
impacts of long periods of illnesses and frequent HIV/AIDS deaths on the agency
and its activities. The agency’s
strategies are laid out in its HIV/AIDS policy that allows for and authorizes a
variety of measures including use of plant resources from their protected areas,
which involves controlled harvesting and propagation of medicinal plants to
avoid depletion of the resources and negative impacts on biodiversity, periodic
HIV/AIDS awareness and education of staff, condom availability for staff,
medical boarding of staff unable to continue performing conservation duties and
activities, and a well-being program with various components including voluntary
counselling and HIV testing, links with traditional healers, arrangements for
discounts and networking with health and HIV/AIDS NGOs and the provincial
government for antiretroviral drugs and other benefits for people with HIV/AIDS.
Uganda Wildlife Authority
Uganda
Wildlife Authority (UWA) offers another good example of arrangements between a
protected area authority and adjacent local communities to harvest natural
resources other than medicinal plants including non-timber forest products from
protected areas. The specific
natural resource in the
Uganda
example is bamboo, which local communities in the
area use to make stretchers to transport their ill and the dead to and from
hospitals and clinics. In both
cases, harvesting is supervised and periodic assessments of the impacts of
harvesting are made to prevent destruction and depletion of the resources.
Sharing
Findings
Dr.
Dwasi recommends, based on her research, that conservation
NGOs must take measures to prevent and reduce the impacts of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, before they bring conservation activities in many places to a halt.
“It
would be useful to share the findings from this study and other coping
strategies with the conservation community in other regions not yet studied,
especially countries in West and
Central Africa
, where the impacts of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic currently appear to be lower than in Eastern and
Southern Africa
,” said Dr. Dwasi. “There may be
useful lessons on impacts and coping strategies in these areas.
Likewise as the HIV/AIDS pandemic spreads globally, information about the
linkages with natural resources could help Asia/Pacific,
Latin America
, and
Eastern Europe
to cope with the impacts.”
*
Emmanuel
Koro
is an environment and development
communication specialist based in
Zimbabwe
.
He is also President of the Sub-Saharan
Africa
Forum for Environment Communicators (SAFE), which aims to promote the
conservation and development views and interests of rural communities in the
media. Your emails to will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.
|
