Towards the Constitutional Protection of Environmental Rights in Zimbabwe

A ZLRev. article on the legally constituted rights for the protection of the environment and ecology of Zimbabwe.The increasing emphasis on environmental protection and ecological preservation, as well as Zimbabwe's crisis of development make it eminently desirable to analyse the conceptual values in which environmental law is based. It has been stressed that environmental law derives from the common interest of mankind, as does international recognition of human rights and freedom. It is thus normal that a link was established between the two as early as 1972, by the Stockholm Declaration itself which stated that: Man (sic) has the fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.’ Thus, "the right to environment" was proclaimed at the beginning of the "environmental era" at a worldwide level. In addition, as it is formulated, this principle includes all the essential elements of both old and new fields of international law. It is very clearly linked with human rights, civil, political (freedom, equality, dignity) economic, social and cultural rights (adequate conditions of life, well being). It also warns that everybody has a responsibility for the protection and improvement of the environment. Finally, and this is new in human rights language, it also opens a time perspective by speaking of future generations

CHAPTER 1 THE HUMAN DIMENSION

“However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper! Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say – nothing can stop us now!” THABO MBEKI, THEN DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA (MBEKI 1996

Rajia El BialyThe GEO approach to integrated environmental assessment Table of Contents List of Acronyms Overview Course Materials

Localization

When water is from God: formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011

In Meru, Tanzania local initiatives were instrumental in establishing a gravity irrigation system in the 1890s. The original property rights institutions governing furrows were characterised by de facto communal ownership and management combined with private temporary user rights. Over the last 12 decades farming systems in Meru have experienced changing land/labour ratios, overall technological and institutional change as well as increased demand for irrigation water. The furrow system has been extended and due to general agricultural intensification access to water has become an important pre-condition for production in the current local system of agricultural production. However, it is argued that in the midst of drastic overall change in the area, irrigation furrows have experienced no significant change in either technology or property rights institutions. It is found that institutional continuity is explained by the natural characteristics of water, property rights embeddedness in socio-economic structures, and challenges of managing it as a common-pool resource

Vulnerability of humans and the environment: challenges and opportunities

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