OVERVIEW OF THE IMPACT OF MINING ON THE ... - IIED pubs

Table 3.2: Population statistics for the eight SADC states comprising the Zambezi basin. [Data obtained from
Chenje (2000) and Ashton & Ramasar (2001)].
Country
Total Population
of Country
(Millions)
Country
Population
in Basin
(Millions)
lxxxvi
Proportion of
Country
Population
(%)
Proportion
of Basin
Population
(%)
Angola 12.903 0.477 3.7 1.5
Botswana 1.639 0.013 0.8 0.04
Malawi 10.778 9.280 86.1 30.1
Mozambique 19.980 3.836 19.2 12.4
Namibia 1.739 0.050 2.9 0.2
Tanzania 33.744 1.282 3.8 4.2
Zambia 9.191 6.452 70.2 20.9
Zimbabwe 13.109 9.452 72.1 30.6
Totals: 103.083 30.842 29.9 100.0
Land is a critically important resource throughout the Zambezi basin upon which the livelihoods of residents and
the national economies of all basin states depend (Chenje, 2000). However, the specific types of land use that
are practiced are controlled by climatic factors, water availability and, importantly, by land tenure arrangements.
A large proportion of the land in all the Zambezi basin states is under communal or customary forms of tenure,
and land ownership is considered to be one of the major constraints to proper land use and conservation
(Chenje, 2000).
Overcrowding and insecure ownership in the smaller communal farming areas is a primary source of land
degradation in the basin. This feature is a critically important driver of poverty within the Zambezi basin and is
associated closely with declining indices of per capita agricultural production (Dalal-Clayton, 1997; Chenje,
2000).
Within the Zambezi basin, some 15.4 % of the total land surface is under some form of formal (commercial
irrigated and rain-fed, as well as small-scale) agriculture, whilst approximately 71 % is “open land” (usually
savannah, grassland or woodland) that is subjected to chitemene use (shifting agriculture). A further 5.6 % of
the basin is comprised of different forest types, whilst a total of some 7.7% is made up of river, lakes, marshes,
swamps or other forms of wetlands, and constructed reservoirs such as lakes Kariba and Cahora Bassa (Pallett,
1997; Chenje, 2000).
In many parts of the basin, progressive urbanization and the development of peripheral “informal” settlements
has been accompanied by the removal of large areas of natural vegetation for cultivation as well as for charcoal