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ISSUE: q406
01/11/2006
The following are the official working definitions of environmental terms found in Zambia’s Draft National Policy on Environment (May 2005), as well as abbreviations for several organisations involved in environmental/conservation issues.
DEFINITIONS
Biodiversity: The total variety of all living organisms, including their genetic constituents, inter-relationships and habitats together with ecosystems and landscapes of which they are part.
Biome: A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major ecosystem such as forest or savannah.
Chitemene: Shifting cultivation involving the cutting and piling of branches which are later burned to create a potash contribution to the soil in a limited area in which crops are planted; practised traditionally in the Northern, Central and Luapula Provinces.
Climate change: Human-induced changes taking place in the world’s climate, especially trends towards global warming, which will deeply impact upon most ecosystems. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol seek to reduce the rate of climate change by curbing practices that are thought to accelerate the process.
Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM): The political-economic transfer of the rights to use high-value common property resources from the centre to communities, and the development of legitimate and effective local institutions and organisations to manage these rights profitably and responsibly.
Conservation: The wise use and management of nature and natural resources for their inherent value and for the benefit of society, bearing in mind that the future generations have as much right to these resources as our own.
Ecological process: This is a process involving the relationship between an organism and its environment. Wise conservation practice should not be restricted to organisms by themselves but be extended also to the ecological process of which they are part.
Ecosystem: A complex of living communities of organisms and their non-living environment interacting as a self sustaining entity of its own.
Environment: The ecosystem of which mankind is part including cultural and man-made features sometimes defined as the complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determines its form and nature of its survival.
Environmental integrity: The wholeness of our environment, without any aspect of it being damaged.
Environmental accountability: The principle that each one of us is accountable for any action that affects the environment and acknowledges our accountability to society.
Environmentally critical area: Terrestrial or aquatic areas within an ecosystem that should be accorded an agreed level of special protection or resource conservation as they are ecologically fragile.
Harmful: A subjective, but often quantifiable, generic term that reflects negative impacts upon the environment, people, natural resources or biodiversity.
Heritage: In the Zambian context this refers to anything passed on from one generation to another including traditions, customs, sites and artefacts that relate to identity, social order, leisure, education, research and, or conservation purposes.
Invasive species: Species of organisms not indigenous to a given ecosystem that invade it, usually as a result of introduction from abroad for example Water Hyacinth, Eichornia crassipes. Indigenous species also tend to invade ecosystems when they are damaged or under stress.
Joint Forest Management: Management systems that involve the active participation of local communities in the protection, management and utilisation of forest resources.
Mushitu: Evergreen riparian forest that is important in the ecology of some rivers and streams as an important habitat for many plants and animals that also plays a vital role in riverbank protection, erosion amelioration and streamflow.
National Heritage Resources: A network of natural and cultural heritage sites of international, national or local significance.
Polluter pays principle: The principle that each of us is responsible to pay for cleaning up the mess we make. This includes paying for cleaner fuel, for the responsible disposal of garbage, for cleaner mines and industries, and mechanisms for rehabilitating degraded or damaged ecosystems, such as afforestation or re-introduction of locally extirpated species.
Protection: This is a term used in contrast with conservation for the prevention of harm to organisms or the environment, usually with tangible intervention and active management.
Ribbon development: Roadside house construction on road verges without cohesive planning for social services.
Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present generation without causing deterioration and without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations.
Utilisation of natural resources: Implies consumptive and non-consumptive exploitation or use of natural resource products or ecosystem services.
Wetlands: Transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic systems in which the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water. Under the Ramsar Convention, wetlands can include tidal mudflats, natural ponds, marshes, potholes, wet meadows, bogs, peat lands, freshwater swamps, mangroves, shallow lakes and some rivers.
ACRONYMS
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CBNRM Community-Based Natural Resource Management
CBO Community-Based Organisation
CEEZ Centre for Energy, Environment and Engineering
CCCZ Chongololo and Conservation Clubs of Zambia
CCOA Chongololo and Conservation Club of the Air
CEMP Community Environment Management Programme
ECZ Environmental Council of Zambia
EEPA Environmental Education and Public Awareness Programme
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
ENR Environment and Natural Resources
ERB Energy Regulation Board
ESP Environmental Support Programme
GEF Global Environment Fund
GIS Geographic Information System
GMA Game Management Area
HIPC Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
HIV Human Immune-deficiency Virus
IEC Information, Education and Communication
IEE Initial Environmental Examination
MDG UN Millennium Development Goals
MEWD Ministry of Energy and Water Development
MLGH Ministry of Local Government and Housing
MTENR Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources
NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan
NEAP National Environmental Action Plan
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
NHCC National Heritage Conservation Commission
NISIR National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research
NPE National Policy on Environment
NTFP Non-Timber Forest Product
SADC Southern African Development Community
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation
VAG Village action group
WCS Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo)
WCSZ Wildlife Conservation Society of Zambia
WECSZ Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia
ZAWA Zambia Wildlife Authority
ZNTB Zambia National Tourist Board.
Date: q406
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