Partnership for Environmental Law Education

Over the past three years, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association in collaboration with Environment Africa and the Environmental Management Agency, (formerly Department of Natural Resources) entered into partnership to educate rural and urban communities about their environmental rights and duties. Rural district councils, grassroots organizations, environmental actions groups, traditional leaders and government departments were among the groups that were trained.

The partnership is driven by the need to address the main impediments to environmental justice, which are poverty and lack of knowledge. At the local level, knowledge about available rights and capacities to claim them are often limited. It is therefore, the purpose of this project to build the capacity of communities and locally based organizations to claim those rights and to promote the building of local institutions that can lead to the opening up of opportunities for improved access to natural resources, good health and improved livelihoods. Therefore, environmental law education provides the avenue for people to acquire knowledge and skills that enable them to act within their communities in an environmentally responsible way.

To date, ZELA, Environment Africa and the Environmental Management Agency held close to fifteen joint workshops by pooling resources together. The partnership was a way of avoiding the duplication of work by the three organisations. In practice, ZELA provides the legal advice while Environment Africa brings its experience and contacts with community groups. The Environmental Management Agency as a government agency brings the government perspective and commitment to natural resources management. Through this partnership, ZELA and Environment Africa are in a better position to make contributions to legal reforms and to influence policy decisions on natural resources management and environmental protection.

Lately, ZELA has been reviewing draft regulations on waste management and indigenous knowledge systems that are being formulated by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The regulations seek to complement the Environmental Management Act. Another key output of the partnership is the formation of Environment Committees and Sub-Committee at the district level in the ten provinces of Zimbabwe.

Waste Management Groups Call for Registration

Harare has witnessed an upsurge in the number of residents forming community based groups to spearhead waste collection efforts. These community groups are formed by people with a passion for the environment and who also want to earn a living from waste recycling and reuse. The formation of waste management groups is also partly due to the increase in the uncollected waste that has been accumulating around the City. However, the groups are just loose groups of individuals especially the youth which do not exist as legal entities. They have been finding it difficult to operate without registration as companies or common law trusts. The following are some of the groups; CNM Environmental Group and ECOSUD in Epworth, Mabvuku Paper-Tech, Dzivarasekwa Environmental Action Group and the Zimbabwe Urban Waste Management Group based in Highfields among others. Most of the groups however, started with technical and financial assistance from Environment Africa and lately Practical Action.

Through workshops and seminars, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association received requests from all the groups for legal assistance. Most of the requests are for their registration either as companies or trusts. ZELA has agreed with Environment Africa and Practical Action to work on a plan of action that will result in the registration of the groups. It is noteworthy that the efforts of these groups are a result of sustained education programme on waste management and environmental protection around Harare by the civil society. Therefore, the formation of the waste management enterprises is one way of implementing the principles of environmental management contained in the Environmental Management Act and other pieces of legislation.

The benefits of registration are that the groups can effectively engage the private sector and request for assistance as a legal entity with traceable references. This can also assist the group in seeking for credit and loans as small enterprises that benefit the whole community.