The Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)

3.0 SOCIO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

3.2 People

3.2.1 Population

The last census report stated a population growth rate of 3.4% per annum. Currently, the estimated population in Swaziland in 1997 is 1.1 million. Of the total population, 47% is composed of people under 15 years old. This means a high dependency ratio. In addition, this skewed structure indicates high population growth rates continuing well into the future. Household sizes are also expected to increase, and the costs of social services and infrastructure will be increasingly borne by a smaller group than the direct user group.

Presently 25% of the population lives in urban areas or peri-urban areas; 69% lives on Swazi Nation Land; and roughly 6% on individual tenure farms. Rural to urban migration is occurring at the fairly high rate of between 3-5%, and it is expected that by the year 2030, approximately 70% of the total population will be living in urban or peri-urban areas.

Presently, roughly 70% of the population is rural, consisting of about 88,000 households, more than a third of them headed by women.

3.2.2 Culture and Traditions

In Swaziland, there exists a dualistic system of traditional and modern lifestyles which permeates all forms of economic, social, and political interactions. The importance of traditional practices and customs provides cohesiveness and a strong sense of cultural identity. On the other hand, some traditional practices are not "environmentally-friendly". For example, the practice of investing in cattle results in overgrazing and consequent erosion. The traditional dispersed settlement patterns make the cost of provision of social and economic infrastructure and related services, prohibitive. The traditional attire, especially the men's "majobo" made from the skin of the grey duiker has resulted in illegal hunting. The heavy reliance on natural medicinal plants is exacerbating the loss of certain indigenous plants. It is imperative that measures be taken to ensure that traditional practices are environmentally sustainable.

3.2.3 Women and the Environment

Gender roles are very clearly defined, with men being the decision-makers and authority figures and women being the home-makers and care-givers. As in most societies, women are still valued less than men. They have limited access to higher education, positions of authority, narrower choices of employment, and lower earnings than men. In addition, they have to reconcile the demands of work outside the home with their traditional roles. Generally, they are not brought into decision-making activities at home, within the community, and at national levels. Thus, women, who head about a third of rural households and who are the main users of natural resources, are not part of the management of these resources.

Various community based indigenous social and religious groups have sought to improve the status of women as early as 1940. However, these efforts concentrated on addressing the special needs of women. Since 1991, both NGO and government efforts have been concentrating more on creating a gender equitable economy as a basis for national development.

The National Steering Committee of Women's Affairs (NSCOWA), now the Swaziland Committee on Gender and Women's Affairs (SCOGWA), was launched in 1994 as the main technical co-ordinating body for the development of the gender programme. It has been working with the NDS Gender Sector Committee (GSC) to ensure the following:

integration of gender in the NDS;
formulation of a woman's policy;
creation of an infrastructure for coordination of gender and development activities; and
development of a long-term implementation strategy.

In line with the African Platform for Action (APA) and the Global Platform for Action (GPA), Swaziland has identified critical areas of concern which are inter-related and collectively perpetuate the cycle of disadvantage and disparity between females and males. Those which have special implications for women participating in environmental management are:

participation in decision-making;
feminisation of poverty;
reproductive health;
education;
economic empowerment; and
natural resource management.

3.2.4 Property Rights

By property rights is meant "all those rights, both personal and real, which confer on their holders inalienable and exclusive entitlement to them.... This means that property rights relate not only to (land and) houses, cars, machinery, or merchandise, but also to rental agreements, foreign currency certificates, and their free convertibility, and all sorts of credits..." (P. 159 of De Soto, H 1990. The Other Path. Harper & Row New York)

One premise of this action plan is that clearly defined, enforceable and transferable property rights are fundamental to efficient market activity, and are therefore required for economic and social empowerment, and for application of the principles of free market environmentalism.

Property rights can engender clarity and accountability: Mismanagement is seen as an inevitable result of the lack of such qualities. In a nutshell, if no one person is ultimately accountable for a resource, no-one is. For example, a significant proportion of environmental degradation can be seen as a process of dumping pollutants from areas where property rights are more clearly defined and enforced to those where such rights are less so (such as in the public domain - air, water, communal lands, untended private lands).

For reduction of poverty in both economic and environmental terms, a fundamental strategy of this action plan is to deliver such property rights into the hands of as many citizens as possible.

3.2.5 Interdependence of Environment, Economy and Society

There appear to be four vital interdependencies among the environment, the economy and society. First, the environment provides the raw materials for economic development (fossil fuels, minerals, timber, etc.); second, it acts as a sink or dumping ground for the waste (often toxic) of the system; third, it provides life-sustaining environmental services (e.g. climate stability, soil conservation); and fourth, it supports human and animal habitats, cultures and livelihoods. The problem is that the more it contributes to the first two functions, the more the latter two suffer. Up to the present time, economic growth (or development) has occurred primarily through degradation of the environment - in particular depletion of the stock of renewable and non-renewable resources. Richards (1996) maintains that national accounting systems purposefully disguise this depreciation - while depreciation of man-made capital appears as a cost in Gross National Product, exploitation of natural resources appears as a positive entry in the form of increased economic activity, e.g. higher fish extraction, exports. Global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, water and air pollution, and the loss of forests and wetlands are all serious consequences of on-going economic growth.

3.2.6 Policy

Since Independence (1968), Swaziland has been developing National Development Plans with guiding policies and strategies for all socio-economic activities. The main national goals have been Economic Growth, Sustainable Development, Self-reliance, Equity and Participation and Social Justice and Stability. Late in 1996, a special incentive, the Economic and Social Recovery Agenda was developed for a two-year period. This policy document has identified Environment as one of its main areas of focus, giving priority to the completion of this Environment Action Plan, to several conservation of biodiversity initiatives, and generally to environmentally-sustainable economic development.