By Charles Mpaka:
Fourteen years after the last edition, Malawi is in the process of developing the latest State of Environment and Outlook Report.
Through the report, Malawi seeks to define trends in environmental change, provide policy positions in tackling associated challenges and sketch future scenarios the country could face in terms of environment.
This report comes in the wake of a series of more intense and frequent climate disasters and worsening environmental degradation that have exacted heavy losses and damage the country is struggling to recover from.
Co-chairperson of the team working on the report, Zachariah Magombo, said the document will evaluate the effectiveness of Malawi’s responses to climate crises and biodiversity loss thus far.
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He was speaking in Lilongwe on Thursday as the experts appraised the media on the report development process.
Among the issues that stand out in Malawi’s action on environmental management, according to Magombo, is how different sectors have approached it individually when environment is actually the basis of everything that Malawi aspires to achieve.
“What we have seen over the years is a silo approach to environmental management. Yet environment is the bedrock of all our ideals as a country. Environment means education and national security; it means good health and our agricultural productivity. It means Malawi’s economy. So, we can’t tackle biodiversity loss using disconnected approaches,” he said.
Magombo, who is also acting Director General of the National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of Malawi, said the report is crucial for national planning as it will articulate policy options that need to be adopted for decisive action against environmental degradation and climate crises.
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He is chairing the committee together with Director of the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, Lucy Mtilatila.
Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) is leading the exercise while the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) and Norwegian organisation, Grid Arendal, are providing technical support.
Cecilia Aipira of the Ecoystem Division at Unep in Nairobi, Kenya, said different segments of society suffer environmental impacts differently, with the poorest households being the ones worst affected.
Aipira said understanding the state of environment today is critical for Malawi, given the precarious situation that the country faces due to ecosystem degradation and how that is exacerbating climate disaster risks and impacting lives and national development.
“We actually don’t exist without the environment. We hope that the State of Environment and Outlook Report will promote greater understanding and dialogue around the complex interlinkages between environment and poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to alternative energy sources and unsustainable development practices,” she said.
Acting Director General for Mepa, Tawonga Mbale, said while the requirement is to produce the report every five years, the department has not been able to do so due to lack of resources.
“But this is an important task because we need to understand what is driving environmental change currently and how are we responding to that state and how do we continue to respond in order to replace the trend of environmental degradation,” she said.
Mbale said a lot has happened environmentally in Malawi since the last report in 2010.
“So we definitely need to be able to take these issues into account as we are preparing this report,” she said.
The report is expected to be launched in September 2025.
The work of developing the report started in March this year. Along the way, it will involve a broad range of national experts for their input.
The last report pulled together more than 50 experts from various government departments, civil society and private sector.
