Chapter 1 - Background

A. Zambia: Country Setting

1.1 Zambia is a landlocked country located in the Southern Africa region between latitudes 8° and 18° south and longitudes 22° and 33° east (Map 1). It occupies a land area of 752,614 km 2 and shares borders with Mozambique and Malawi in the east, Tanzania in the northeast, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north, Angola in the west, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe in the south and southwest respectively.

1.2 The whole country lies on the Central African Plateau with altitude between 1000 and 1600 metres above sea level, a factor that gives it a moderately cool sub-tropical climate. The plateau landscape is dissected by two main river systems; namely the Zambezi and its tributaries, Kafue and Luangwa; and, the Chambeshi-Luapula system, which is part of the Congo River basin. The dominant plateau soils are oxisols, ultisols and alfisols which give way to entisols in the western part of the country and to vertisols in valleys and floodplains.

1.3 Although Zambia has a tropical climate, temperatures are modified by altitude. There are three seasons: the cool dry (April-August), hot dry (August-November) and hot wet (November-April). Average temperatures range from a mean monthly minimum of about 10°C in June and July to a mean monthly maximum of 30°C in October and November. Most of the rainfall is concentrated over the period November-March. However, rainfall varies from 700 mm in the south to 1500 mm in the north (Map 2).

1.4 The natural vegetation is savanna woodland dominated by miombo which cover about 50 percent of the country. Mopane and munga woodlands cover much of the hot and dry southern valleys of the Zambezi and Luangwa. The country has abundant wildlife.

1.5 Zambia's population has more than doubled in size over the past three decades. The de jure population rose from 3.41 million in 1963 to an estimated 7.99 million in 1993. The population is expected to double again by the year 2010. This dynamism of the Zambian population is attributed to a number of factors. Most important of these is the youthfulness of the population. With 51 percent of the population under the age of 16 in 1993, dependency ratios are high and there is a considerable hidden momentum for future population growth (CSO 1990; 1995). Fertility is another factor determining the growth, size and composition of the population. At an average of 6.7 children per woman, the fertility of the Zambian population is among the highest in Africa. Fertility is even higher in rural areas (7.0) than in towns (6.3), due to lower levels of literacy and contraceptive use in the former. These factors together with the mortality rate that had shown a decline from the sixties to the eighties determined the country's rate of population growth of 2.7 percent between 1980 and 1993. Although the mortality rate has begun to rise in the present decade due to deterioration in living standards of many Zambians and the advent of Human Immuno-Deficiency Vires/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), the rate of population growth is not likely to see a substantial reduction.

1.6 As a result of the rapid population growth rates, the average population density in terms of persons per square kilometre rose from 5.5 in 1963 to 7.8 in 1980 and 10.6 in 1993 (ibid). Although the average population density remains low compared to other Eastern and Southern African countries, the aspect of overcrowded urban areas and sparsely populated rural areas is concealed. While only 20 percent of Zambia's population was living in urban areas in 1963, this rose to 42 percent in 1990, making Zambia second only to South Africa in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of high urbanization. Urbanization in Zambia has a historical connotation in that it results from post-independence Government policies that gave a priority to developing a modem industrial economy while neglecting agriculture and rural development.

1.7 Zambia's rapid population growth has led to greatly increased pressures on the country's natural resources base including its biodiversity. Despite being well endowed in natural resources that include water, minerals, forests, fish and wildlife, the optimisation of the conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits accruing from these resources has not been fully realised.

1.8 Poverty in Zambia has reached threatening levels. In 1991, about 68 percent of Zambians were living in households where income was not sufficient to meet even basic nutritional needs (The World Bank, 1994). This had risen to 78 percent in 1996 (CSO, 1997). Comparatively, rural poverty is more prevalent than urban poverty. In 1991, the proportion of the core poor in rural and urban areas was 76 percent and 29 percent, respectively (The World Bank, 1994). Poverty in Zambia is exacerbated by population growth, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation. Population growth leads to the overburdening of social services while the HIV/AIDS epidemic, on the other hand, leads to reduction of productivity of households and diverts scarce resources to health care. Environmental degradation leads to reduced assets for the future generations and reduces livelihood options available for the poor.

1.9 The poor socio-economic situation prevailing in the country is largely responsible for the country's failure to effectively plan and manage its natural resources, and to ensure the equitable sharing of benefits accruing from biological resources among its people.

Since the mid-1980s, the Zambian Government has been implementing an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to try and reverse the sharp decline in the performance of the economy. This decline followed a period of economic boom from 1964 to 1974 when the favourable international prices of copper pushed the industry to almost the sole foreign exchange earner and contributing more than 80 percent of the country's Growth Domestic Product (GDP). The reforms currently being implemented are intended to produce economic growth, by stabilising the economy through: (i) the devaluation of the Zambian currency, the Kwacha; (ii) the liberalization of prices and the liberalisation of foreign exchange and interest rates; (iii) the removal of subsidies; (iv) scaling down of government expenditure through introduction of a cash-budgeting system; (v) privatization of state owned commercial activities; and, (vi) the improvement in infrastructure and social service delivery systems.

1.10 Whilst much has been achieved in the implementation of the ERP, the greatest challenge still remains on how to promote sustainable economic growth while ensuring micro-economic stability. Moreover, the impact of the reforms have been harsh on the poor due to reduced Government spending on social services and introduction of cost saving measures in the health and education sectors.

B. Biological Diversity in Zambia

1.11 Definition of Biodiversity. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines biological diversity or biodiversity as the variability among living organisms (UNEP 1992); this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. This definition was adopted in the formulation of the Zambia's Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (BSAP). Biodiversity can therefore be considered at ecosystem, species and gene levels. Much of the work on biodiversity in Zambia is at species level and to a limited extent on ecosystems. Consequently, the country study focused more at species and ecosystem levels (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) 1998a).

1.12 Biome. Floristically, Zambia lies within the Zambezian regional centre of endemism which borders the Guinea-Congolian region to the north and the Karoo-Namib region to the south and southwest (White, 1983). Inter-regional transitions form broad ecotones that consist of a mix of flora from neighbouring centres of endemism. According to the FAO-UNESCO (1977) classification, the broad soil regions in the Zambezian centre of endemism are characterised by ferralsols in the north, arenosols in the west and acrisols and invisols in the east. Within Zambia, the western plateau has arenosols while the rest of the plateau has ferrasols that tend towards lithosols on hills and escarpments. The valleys and flood plains have vertisols.

1.13 Savanna is the major terrestrial biome in Zambia. This biome is characterised by annual mean temperature of 20-30°C and rainfall range of 500-1500 mm from south to north, as can be seen from Map 2. The biome lies between the rain forest conditions in the northwest and semi desert conditions in the southwest. In the context of this report, the savanna biome consists of the woodland anti grassland types of vegetation.

1.14 Ecosystem Diversity. As shown in Table 1 and Map 2, Zambia has fourteen ecosystems based on vegetation types (Fanshawe, 1971). These fall into four main divisions, as shown in Box 1. In addition to the fourteen terrestrial ecosystems classified on the basis of vegetation life form, Zambia also has fresh water aquatic ecosystems and anthropic land cover types, especially different forms of agricultural land uses (Table 1 and Map 3).

1.15 The aquatic ecosystem consists of natural and man made lakes and the major perennial rivers. Man made lakes cover about 9000 km 2. Anthropic ecosystems or land use/land cover types range from cropland to fallow, tree plantations, and the built-up environments.

1.16 Zambia has also identified agricultural biodiversity as an important form of biodiversity upon which more than 600,000 households depend directly for their livelihood. Agro-biodiversity in this respect is defined as the variation between and within crop and livestock species. This diversity is affected by historical factors and differences in farming systems, agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions.

Box 1. Main Categories of Ecosystems in Zambia

1.17 For agricultural purposes, Zambia has been divided into three agro-ecological zones (Veldkamp et al., 1984) corresponding to agro-climatic zones as shown in Map 4.

Box 2. Main Agro-Ecological Regions in Zambia

1.18 EcosystemsDynamies. Ecosystems are dynamic due to the influence of environmental factors such as climate and geomorphological processes. Over the last million years, there have been drastic changes in the extent of these ecosystems, triggered by changes in climate, especially rainfall.