SIGNIFICANCE OF FISH, WILDLIFE MITIGATION POLICIES

 WINSTON MULEBA Jr.

"Fish and Wildlife" resources include fish, wild birds, amphibians, reptiles, and wild mammals over which the Fish and Wildlife have jurisdictions enforced by different statutory instruments of the laws of Zambia. Fish and Wildlife are renewable resources which have unique economic properties that support a massive economic growth, based on the consumptive and non-consumptive use of the resource.  The wildlife industry promotes the conservation of biological diversity, which is essential for continued human adaptation in a world of increasing resource scarcity and changing economic forces. In addition, wildlife management is often more profitable than alternative uses of the land, given appropriate institutions that permit it to realize its inherent economic advantage whereas the fisheries sector contribute to poverty reduction and economic growth through sustainable utilization of fisheries resources and development of aquaculture.

According to Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) policies, it is acknowledged that tourism is largely based on wildlife and protected areas therefore, the government of Zambia recognizes the high economic, socio-cultural and biological values of national parks and the wildlife resource, a major resource base in the development of tourism which is an economic sector. It is determined to exploit their marketability for the benefit of the resource and the people of Zambia, especially those people who share the land with the wildlife resource. Accepting that the natural flora and fauna of Africa requires special management techniques, government endeavor plan to adopt management agendas that are ecologically and economically sound for the resource, and that are equitable under the socio-economic conditions prevailing in Zambia.

The fish and wildlife resource in Zambia also contribute towards fiscal revenue, income, and poverty reduction. The Sectors related to natural resources in use provide jobs and are often the basis of livelihoods in poorer communities. Owing to this fundamental importance of fish and wildlife, they must be managed sustainably as such Government plays the essential role in putting into place policies that ensure that resources contribute to the long-term economic development of nations, and not only to short-term revenue generation because of the fact that Natural resources play an important role in the development of our country or nation. The way they affect the economy is either by helping in the development or bringing it into a down fall.

The significance of fish and wildlife mitigation policies through the application of consistent goals and standards to mitigate impacts to fish and wildlife habitat caused by land and water development actions basically aims to provides goals and standards for general application to individual development actions, and for the development of more detailed policies for specific classes of development actions or habitat types. As such mitigation policies take into account  one or more of the following actions listed in order of priority, which include ; avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain development action or parts of that action; minimizing impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the development action and its implementation; rectifying the impact by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected environment; reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the development action and by monitoring and taking appropriate corrective measures; compensating for the impact by replacing or providing comparable substitute resources or environments.

The Goal is basically to achieve no loss of habitat functions and values of fish and wildlife habitat in the state. It is the fish and wildlife habitat mitigation policies which are responsible for such resources to require or recommend, depending upon the habitat protection and mitigation opportunities provided by specific statutes, mitigation for losses of fish and wildlife habitat resulting from development actions. Priority for mitigation actions are  given to habitat for native fish and wildlife species. Mitigation actions for nonnative fish and wildlife species may not adversely affect habitat for native fish and wildlife.

To end on a more serious note, the Government, in recognizing the integral part of the said natural resources plays a very important role in the sustainable development of the country, accepts responsibility for conserving all natural resources, including those species that may sometimes be in conflict with human interests, and to ensure that these assets are never squandered for any short term human gain or any purpose that does not conform with the principle of environmentally sustainable development.

It has become widely recognized that Zambia's wealth of natural and cultural resources are in danger of further widespread depletion and degradation, sometimes irreversibly as in the case of misuse of some soils. Concern for this worsening environmental situation prompted the need to create a National Policy on Environment .It must be understood thereof that national policies are interdependent on one another. In relation to the economic sectors, among other sectors, the fisheries and wildlife sectors also provided the baseline for formulation of the National Policy on Environment because of the hereunder factors which include, Over fishing in nearly all wild fisheries due to population increase and use of unsustainable fishing methods; Reduced production of fish due to sedimentation in rivers and streams caused by seasonality of flow on account of land cover change through deforestation for farming and uncontrolled fuel wood harvesting; Reduction in fish stocks due to harvesting, ecological and other Factors; Fisheries policy implementation not being carried out effectively to manage and monitor the resource adequately; The demand for fish protein cannot be met due to management and policy failures leading to local depletion of fish stocks; Proliferation of unregulated commercial fish ponds and inadequately controlled and managed re-stocking.

The wildlife resource is generally under severe and increasing pressure due to increasing pressure due to increase in human population and loss of habitat as a consequence of expanding human settlements and conversion of habitat to available land; Depletion in most places of wildlife due to illegal harvesting a consequence of high poverty levels; Deforestation and uncontrolled hunting is leading to a widespread depletion of all of wildlife; Loss of biodiversity through weak management of protected areas; Community-based management still weak and not yet widely Practiced; potential for tourism development jeopardised through reduction in large mammal populations and degradation of habitats in some places and River flow changes through hydro-power dam regulation causing reduced production of floodplain wildlife (NPE ,2005).To this effect it is imperative that every Zambian participate in the protection of fish and wildlife resources.