Circular Economy and Linkage to the Wildlife Economy

TICHAKUNDA KUDZAI MAPOSA

Over the years, population growth and the need for development have been critical factors in the world, particularly in Africa.

This has led to the visible increase in pollution, land degradation and encroaching into ecologically sensitive areas and wildlife conservation areas.

Solutions within each area differ due to the distribution, abundance and interactions of organisms both living and non living within the particular area, also referred to as the ecosystem.

There is no one size fits all for aspects of nature related challenges.

Human activities both within the moral and immoral conscience produce waste which is in most cases non-biodegradable and provides a challenge of polluting the air, waster and terrestrial components.

There are various innovative and enterprise technologies which have been designed and adopted by humans to encourage the use of various waste produced to be manufactured into valuable resources such as bricks, cups, chairs, beads, toys, key holders, including biogas for heating and cooking purposes. The appropriate common term for such approaches is termed “The Circular Economy”.

The Circular Economy is a progressive approach which defies the once off use and disposal of products. It promotes the designs and innovation of the use of the various waste into cheaper and reliable products, systems and services which serve a purpose to the society.

For the circular economy principles to be relevant to the various wildlife conservation areas, there is need for the organizations, local communities and traditional leadership to be aware of the current baseline pollution challenges in their areas.

Particularly on non-biodegradable waste such as plastics which is not suitable to be eaten by wildlife species and also do not add to the nitrification of the soil, as well as the unfortunate disposal into rivers and water bodies.

This baseline consultative process then provides a platform for identifying the pollution problems within the areas. It also helps in identifying any potential hazardous wastes which might have been disposed within their area. Those cannot be used for Circular Economy prospects.

The integration of the Circular Economy and the Wildlife Economy provides a suitable platform for a progressive Community Based Natural Resources Management approach, similar to the CAMPFIRE which was introduced in ZImbabwe during the early 1980s where communities were appointed as stewards of the wildlife within the areas where they resided in, with proceeds from tourists and trophy hunting being utilized to develop their local communities and support vulnerable members of the society.

In this case, the Circular Economy will seek to enable members of the surrounding local communities to conduct enterprise upscaling projects and programmes which utilize waste such as plastics and beverage cans to design and produce cups, bricks, toys, beads and any other items of innovation.

To fully integrate these projects, there is a need for Circular Non-Governmental Organizations to assist in capacity building and financing of circularity projects within areas in wildlife conservation areas. The revenue generated will assist in ensuring the welfare of their families and also to aid the improvement of eco-friendly infrastructure in such areas.

Empowerment of local communities enables them to become ethical custodians of the areas within which they live as they will be motivated by the economic benefit arising from their presence and involvement. Areas within wildlife conservatives may become renowned for purely organic farming practices, natural solutions to human-wildlife conflicts and the promotion of alternative bio-energy technologies for cooking, heating purposes, rich apiculture (bee-keeping) hubs projects which eliminate the risk or existence of deforestation.

It is an undeniable fact that sustainable wildlife economic practices strongly rely on the local communities. Hence, there is a need to create an essential focus of the various plans and programmes around them. A successful approach will also include the education and awareness of the youth and lower level education social classes on the various botanical nomenclature of the flora and fauna found within their areas of existence, the heritage of the area or region, the medicinal and economic use of the various flora found within the areas. It includes the poisonous species available, further on educating and equipping them on the urgent  medical responses to such tragedies which may arise.

Who knows, there may be future prospects for local community beneficiation where more pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations may be located near the areas where the plant resources are located.

Much of the focus should not be entirely on tree planting as has been commonly done, but nurturing and training natural resources stewards from an early age is key so that the same attitude and stewardship survives for the future upcoming generations throughout Africa.

Tichakunda Kudzai Maposa is an emerging regional environmental and natural resources professional with experience from Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. He can be contacted on; genmaphosa@gmail.com