4. Rural poverty and the environment
A large and growing population of rural people struggling to survive in a limited land resource base has led to the overexploitation of the environment. Crop production is seriously affected by unreliable rainfall. Yields have been falling due to loss of soil productivity. Land under crop cultivation has been increasing due to increasing population and efforts by farmers to increase total production. Mountain slopes and riverbanks are now under cultivation in most rural areas.
Firewood is a major source of energy for people in the rural areas. Firewood extraction from indigenous forests is causing widespread deforestation in rural areas. Firewood is a cheap energy source for rural households especially the poor.
Within the SADC region in some countries like Zimbabwe, some households in the rural areas exploit river bed gold deposits, resulting in channel geometry and large amounts of silt that ultimately collect in dams, thus reducing their holding capacity. Lives have been lost after the excavations collapsed, trapping the miners/panners underground.
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