Zambezi River Basin

Acknowledgements

internet version of the Atlas which is available at www.grida. no with links to the Virtual Library for Southern Africa at www. sardc.net (Knowledge for Development) as well as links to www. sadc.int, www.unep.org and www.zambezicommission.org. The partners would like to thank well-known Zimbabwean artist, Tapfuma Gutsa, to use images of his artwork on the cover and opening pages of this Atlas. This gives the Atlas the timeless perspective of Nyaminyami, the spirit of the Zambezi river, whose presence is shown on the front cover; while the back cover image depicts Mulonga, the river itself; and Husha marks the inside Contents pages. These are part of Gutsa’s 2012 exhibition entitled, Mulonga, DeepWaters and Starry Skies. The Atlas was producedwith financial support fromGRID-Arendal and technical backstopping from UNEP as well as from Planet Action who provided GIS software through Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).We want to thank GRID-Arendal for their patience and creativity in the design process and for printing the final product. To Clever Mafuta, the Africa Coordinator at GRID-Arendal, we acknowledge your spirit of partnership and shared vision as well as your personal commitment to this initiative. Thanks yet again to the pillar of shared water resources in southern Africa, Phera Ramoeli, Senior Programme Officer SADCWater Division, and to Michael Mutale, Executive Secretary of the Interim ZAMCOM Secretariat, both of whom gave us enormous encouragement and an institutional framework of firm support. You know already that your IZS Communications Specialist, Leonissah Munjoma, is second to none. Here we must make another very personal acknowledgement, to Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, with very special thanks for starting out with us on this journey long ago and staying the course! Phyllis Johnson, the SARDC Executive Director, we thank you for your engagement, thorough technical review and knowledgeable editorial eye that made this Atlas a cut above the rest. The SARDC Programmes Director, Munetsi Madakufamba, who set the tone for the review workshop with this thoughtful opening remarks, and for his support, we thank you. The IMERCSA staff who worked tirelessly to make this product a success, we greatly appreciate your determination and commitment. A detailed list of the Editorial and Production team is found at the back of the Atlas. There are many organisations and individuals who have contributed directly and indirectly to this process. While efforts have been made to acknowledge their input, it may be that not everyone has been credited by name. Please accept this acknowledgement of your role in this important publication.

The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre’s environment institute, the I Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa, is pleased to present the Zambezi River Basin: Atlas of the Changing Environment . The work of many hands, both individuals and institutions, has made this Atlas unique and useful. It is the first such atlas of a single ecosystem in southern Africa, documenting the shared resources and potential for sustainable development as well as environmental impact, and we are rightly proud of the result. SARDC would like to thank the partners in this initiative who are, first and foremost our long-term partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the SADC Executive Secretary for his support and the SADCWater Division for partnership, the Interim Secretariat of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) for having that fine mix of professional skills and people skills, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and especially the Managing Director and staff at GRID-Arendal who provided financial support as well as designing and printing of this fine publication. SARDC IMERCSA is pleased to present this Atlas as an output of its role as the UNEP Collaborating Centre for Southern Africa for environmental reporting, early warning and assessment. The preparation of this Atlas benefited from a network of National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) in the Zambezi River Basin, including the Ministry of Energy, Water and Environment, Angola; Kalahari Conservation Society, Botswana; Coordination Unit for the Rehabilitation of the Environment (CURE), Malawi; ARA Zambeze, Mozambique; Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), Namibia; Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Department of Water Resources, Tanzania; Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA); and the Environment Management Agency (EMA), Zimbabwe. We want to thank the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) of Uganda for use of their atlas (2009), Uganda: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, as reference for composition and presentation. And we also warmly thank our partners at NEMA for the staff exchange during this process, under the Norwegian FK programme. The preparation of the Atlas started in 2010 with the formation of a consultative group from representatives of the eight Zambezi basin states. Through online consultation with this group and other Zambezi River Basin stakeholders including SADC, and in collaboration with UNEP/GRID-Arendal, SARDC IMERCSA prepared a zero draft of the Zambezi River Basin Atlas of the Changing Environment. A regional review workshop was then convened to identify data gaps and cross check the presented data for other available sources and updates, check on accuracy of facts, identify other significant changes not included in the draft, identify hotspots in the basin, and indicate other planned initiatives not captured in the draft, as well as to obtain wider regional ownership of the process and content of the Atlas. SARDC IMERCSA then finalized the manuscript by incorporating comments and updating, review and edit.

We dedicate this work to you, the users.

Egline Tauya Head of SARDC IMERCSA August 2012

Design and printing was done by GRID-Arendal in consultation with SARDC, and GRID-Arendal also designed and hosts the

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