3. Poverty and resource utilisation
The relationship between poverty and the environment has not been given serious consideration it deserves. The poor are both victims and unwilling agents to environmental change.
Poverty is one of the main causes of forest and woodland degradation in southern Africa and it is both a consequence and a cause of this degradation.
In the SADC region national forests are also being exploited for homestead construction materials. The destruction of forests that results contributes to land degradation processes and alters the soil water regimes. Pulp and paper manufacturing, furniture and the building industry are other large consumers of wood in the region. Industrial timber is mainly obtained from commercial stands in forest estates.
A degraded environment produces less, so people become more vulnerable, for example, to water borne and other diseases. Poverty is one of the most urgent issues affecting women and children in the SADC region, according to a study by UNICEF. For example, a National Nutrition Survey conducted in Lesotho in 1992, showed that, among children under five years of age, 40,000 were underweight, 80,000 were chronically malnourished and 6,000 were severely malnourished mainly due to poverty in that country.
A driving force behind environmental pressures in southern Africa is poverty linked with population growth. When people lack adequate financial as well as other resources, they often have little choice but to take what they can from the natural environment to meet their needs, without consideration for the future.
Clearly, improvements in environmental quality should help reduce poverty. When people lack adequate financial and other resources, they are left with no choice but to turn to unsustainable use of natural forests and woodlands to meet their basic needs. It becomes a vicious circle.
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