The East African is a region prone to a great variety of natural and human induced hazards and related disasters like;
floods,
droughts,
earthquakes,
volcanic activities,
landslides,
strong winds,
storms,
tsunamis,
lightning,
diseases and epidemics,
pests infestation,
conflicts,
terrorism,
wild and urban fires,
invasive alien species,
collapse of buildings,
traffic and
industrial accidents.
Drought is the most common hazard both globally and also at the region. Climate Change is expected to further increase the hydro-meteorological hazards in the sub-region.
In combination with poverty and slow and negative economic growth, and environmental degradation, internally displaced persons and refugees arise multiple vulnerabilities of the communities, and frequently disasters affect human lives and essential assets required for further development.
These natural and manmade disasters pose a huge threat to socio-economic development of the region towards the realization of EAC’s core objective and mandate of widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in political, economic, social, security, cultural and development fields. With increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate and severe weather events, the region experiences the severe consequences of disasters as resources for development are diverted to finance disaster emergencies.
The knowledge and comprehension of disasters by the general public is still low thus making it difficult to prevent and reduce the impact of disasters to the Community.
To minimize the impacts on the region’s development, the EAC Partner States have realized the need to move from reactive disaster management to proactive Disaster Risk Reduction. All the EAC Partner States have therefore put in place some disaster management mechanisms and institutions at various levels of capacities.
The Community is emphasizing integration of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and management into the sustainable development agenda to help create safer and more resilient communities in social, economic and environmental terms and encouraging Partner States to domesticate and mainstream policy on the aforementioned to ensure that ownership of the responses are made national, and at all levels of governance.
The areas of focus include DRR Policy and Coordination; Risk Information, monitoring and reporting; DRR Advocacy and Communication; Collaboration with Partner States in response to complex emergencies; and Resource mobilization. The priority areas on disaster risk reduction and management are on:
Accelerate the finalization of the EAC DRRM Act in line with the SFDRR;
Mainstream DRR and EAC Policies and Programs;
Formulation of mechanisms for supporting and collaboration for Partner states in response to complex emergencies;
Monitoring the Sendai Framework (2015-2030) implementation and the Africa Programme of Action;
Develop appropriate risk information, including the development of disaster loss databases and risk profiles; and
Organization of advocacy events, development of public awareness materials and mechanisms for data and information sharing and communication strategies for early warning.
The EAC Secretariat has been playing a key role in the international Climate Change policy discourse through providing leadership on regional Climate Change policy and mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and mitigation in regional integration programmes.
Since 2009, the EAC Secretariat has been facilitating National Climate Change Roundtables in the Partner States of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. The roundtables play a critical role in identifying Climate Change priorities at the national level towards the development of national Climate Change positions, which feed into building up of the African Common Position on Climate Change.
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA-EAC-SADC) Region
The Programme on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Eastern and Southern Africa is a five-year initiative of COMESA, EAC and SADC with the purpose of enabling COMESA-EAC-SADC Member States to increase investments in climate resilient and carbon efficient agriculture and its linkages to forestry, land use and energy practices by 2016.
The overall objective of the Programme is to address the impacts of Climate Change in the COMESA-EAC-SADC region through successful adaptation and mitigation actions, which also build economic and social resilience for present and future generations.
The programme is currently being financed through a multi-donor arrangement involving the following development partners: Government of Norway, the European Union and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development through COMESA.
The initiative that started in 2010 aims to inject Africa’s Unified Position on Climate Change into the post-2012 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change global agreement so as to unlock resources for promoting strategic interventions that sustain productivity and livelihood improvements for millions of climate-vulnerable people in the region.
The programme stems from the recognition of the seriousness of the challenge posed by Climate Change, which was re-iterated by the African Heads of State and Government at the African Union Summit in January 2007. The African Heads of State and Government agreed that the countries in Africa should mainstream Climate Change adaptation and mitigation into their developmental plans. Further, the African Heads of State and Government Summit held in 2009, in Sirte, Libya endorsed the African common position on Climate Change, which advocates for inclusion of Agriculture and Forestry in the Climate Change regime.
Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research, and Economic Development (PREPARED)
This is a proposed six year programme with the overall goal of strengthening the resiliency and sustainability of East African economies, trans-boundary freshwater ecosystems, and communities. PREPARED targets three key priority development challenges of East Africa and of the US Government: biodiversity conservation / natural resource management (NRM) and sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene, and Climate Change. The programme seeks to:
Improve Climate Change adaptation technical capacity, policy leadership and action readiness of regional institutions.
Strengthen resilient and sustainable management of biologically significant transboundary freshwater ecosystems in the East African Community region.
Enhance resilient and sustainable drinking water supply, sanitation, and wastewater treatment services in the Lake Victoria Basin.
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Actions in the EAC region
Supported by Intra-ACP GCCA+, the overall objective of the project is to increase resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change and contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals in the EAC region.
An initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, the Intra-ACP Global Climate Change Alliance+ (GCCA+) Programme supports ACP countries’ efforts to address climate change. The EAC 4-year prject has 3 key targets:
To enhance the capacity of the EAC region on climate change;
To strengthen the implementation of climate change actions and the Paris Agreement; and
To strengthen regional capacity to access climate change funding
At regional level, the project is exptected to strengthen the capacity of the regional Climate Change Technical Working Group (CCTWG) to implement identified climate change actions as well as review and update the EAC Climate Change Policy and the EAC Climate Change Strategy. In addition, the project will support the development and enactment of the EAC Climate Change Bill and identify relevant national best practices, success stories and lessons on management of climate change and share them among partner states.
At national level, the project will support Partner States in reviewing and updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in line with the Paris Agreement.
In strengthening regional capacity to access climate chage funding, the project aims to develop 3 community-based climate change adaptation projects and submit them to the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund.
The project will also support the development and implementation of a Regional Climate Change Communication and Advocacy Plan.
The Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) directed the EAC Secretariat to develop a Climate Change Policy and strategies to address the adverse impacts of Climate Change in the region and harness any potential opportunities posed by Climate Change in the context of the principle of sustainable development.
The adverse impacts of climate change in the EAC region are a huge threat to the region’s socio-economic development, negatively affecting livelihoods and economies. These are evidenced through extreme weather phenomena (droughts and floods) that are occurring with greater frequency and intensity and result in:
The East African Community land mass is blessed with a myriad of minerals and gemstones of varying values in international markets. Most of the EAC Partner States have many rare minerals.
The mining sector contributes about 2.3% of the GDP in the East African region and is one of the leading components in generating foreign exchange earnings within the non-traditional exports. Further, the secor has great potential for employment opportunities and spearheading both the forward and backward linkage of the region’s economy.
Eastern Africa is home to some of the greatest water sources in the world. The three most notable water bodies and systems and of relevance to the East Africa region include:
Lake Tanganyika - the greatest single reservoir of fresh water on the continent and second deepest in the world (UNEP, 2006),
Lake Victoria - Africa’s largest lake and the world’s second-largest freshwater lake, and
the Nile River Basin - source of the Nile, the longest river in the world.
The distribution of water varies significantly within the region. The region has four major aridity zones: moist sub-humid mainly in Uganda, Rwanda and parts of Burundi, dry sub-humid (parts of Uganda, western Tanzania), semi-arid (parts of Tanzania) and arid, most of Kenya. The western component of East Africa, including Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda along with the central part of the continent are considered to have a rain surplus, while large parts of Kenya are considered to have a very large water deficit (UNEP, 2010).
Water Towers
Both of the great lakes, Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, and ultimately, the White Nile depend on the regional catchments referred to as Water Towers of the region. The Water Towers of eastern Africa are a collection of mountain ecosystems and associated river basins. These areas have a major influence on regional hydrology and global climatic cycles.
The majority of the main water towers in the region are under very serious threat and several are severely degraded; the threats are anthropogenic in nature. Many of the forests have been cleared extensively mainly for agricultural purposes and human settlements and face additional pressure from surrounding human settlements.
Important regional issues
It is clear that the region has significant volumes of water and that these volumes could be enhanced by the preservation and restoration of the region’s water towers. However to achieve water security, there is need to address important policy issues regionally including:
Though water resources are available, they are not evenly distributed nationally and regionally.
Access to water is critical; water storage and transportation is currently not sufficiently developed to deal with the scale of regional water availability, shortcomings are further emphasised during natural disasters such as drought.
Water quality is declining significantly mainly as a result of human activity in both the catchments and river basins.
Sedimentation and siltation are exacerbated by increasing deforestation; pollution occurs as a result of untreated industrial, domestic wastewater and solid waste as well as boat discharges; high levels of eutrophication and anoxia occur as a result of agricultural run-off and domestic wastewater and solid waste discharge.
Lake Victoria is relatively shallow with high rates of evaporation and almost completely reliant on rainfall (Kizza et al., 2009; Awange et al. 2008), thus pollution can be concentrated within the lake.
Lake Tanganyika is already anoxic beyond a depth of 35m (UNEP 2004) and most importantly as a closed basin, water and pollution are long lived; it takes approximately 7,000 years for water to be flushed from the lake.
The main challenges to achieving water security are therefore:
The destruction of the ecosystems underpinning the region’s water towers;
The lack of physical infrastructure to store and transport water from areas of high availability to those of low availability;
High population density that continues to increase above the continent’s average (UNEP, 2010);
Poor waste management;
High rates of evaporation particularly of Lake Victoria;
Lack of systematic knowledge, data and monitoring of groundwater aquifers.
The five Partner States of the EAC namely, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania share many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems are primary assets and a store of wealth - wildlife, flora and fauna, which if well managed, could contribute to poverty alleviation.
These shared ecosystems face major threats, which include depletion of natural resources due to the rising population pressure, expansion in human activities; over-exploitation, unsustainable agricultural practices, over-fishing, pollution including both point and non-point sources, rampant conversion and destruction of wetlands in ecosystems such as Lake Victoria. These threats, if not checked on time, may have significant negative ecological, environmental, and social impacts.
Efforts to review the policy, legal and institutional frameworks are being made for the management of the natural resource base and the environment. However, those that affect the management of shared ecosystems are still wanting. The EAC Secretariat is working to harmonise policy frameworks for the management of trans-boundary natural resources.
East Africa is well endowed with a variety of ecosystems that provide varied services, as well as habitats for a wide range of species. Burundi has 13 protected areas covering 100,000 ha of land. About 172,000 ha (or 6.7%) of Burundi is forested. These ecosystems harbour 2,500 higher plant species, 145 bird species, 107 mammal species, 79 reptile species, 18 amphibian species and 5 fish species.
The Kenyan coastline is characterised by a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including fish, coral reefs and mangrove forests. The rangelands are composed of a number of habitat structures ranging from open grasslands to closed woody and / or bushy vegetation with varying amounts and composition of grass cover and species.
Rwanda’s location at the heart of the Albertine Rift eco-region in the western arm of Africa’s Rift Valley makes it one of Africa’s most biologically diverse regions. It is home to some 40% of the continent’s mammal species (402 species), a huge diversity of birds (1,061 species), reptiles and amphibians (293 species), and higher plants (5,793 species).
Tanzania has a diverse spectrum of fauna and flora, including a wide variety of endemic species and sub-species. The biological diversity and degree of endemism consist of primates (20 species and 4 endemic), antelopes (34 species and 2 endemic), fish (with many endemic in Lake Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa and other small lakes and rivers), reptiles (290 species and 75 endemic), amphibians (40 endemic), invertebrates and plants (around 11,000 species including many endemic).
Uganda has a rich array of natural resources which include water and wetlands, biodiversity, fisheries, forestry, land resources, wildlife, and minerals among others. The country has more than 5,000 plant species along with 345 mammals, 1,015 birds, 165 reptiles and 43 amphibians.
Forestry
The East African region has a wide variety of forests that support a wealth of biological diversity. The major forest types include tropical and sub-tropical forests, forests plantations, Miombo woodlands, Savannah, Acacia woodlands and mangroves. The forests are vital to people’s livelihoods and regional socio economic development through provision of goods and services. Apart from providing fuel wood for energy, timber and poles for construction, medicine and food, they also protect soil from erosion, harbour valuable biodiversity and are water catchment areas and offer recreational opportunities.
Forest management challenges:
Despite the importance, forests are facing numerous challenges that threaten and undermine their potential contribution in conservation, poverty alleviation and economic development. While climate change threatens to change the types and condition of forests, unsustainable exploitation through logging, unsustainable tree cutting, forests conversion and infrastructure development degrade and fragment the forests in the region. At present, exploitation far exceeds conservation, which has led to drastic loss of forest cover.
Challenges such as inadequate collaboration in forest management among Partner States, inadequate capacity in planning and program implementation at national levels and conflicting forest policies can be resolved by developing a robust and comprehensive regional forest policy to support regional forests conservation and complement national forest initiatives.
The EAC Climate Change Policy also identifies the Forest Management Sector as one of the critical sectors for climate change adaptation and mitigation since forests are considered carbon sinks.
Regional Forest Policy:
The EAC Partner States have recognised the importance of forests and the need for a regional forest policy to among other things maximise the contribution of the forest sector in improving people’s livelihoods and nature conservation.
This is supported by Chapter 19, Article 111 of the EAC Treaty where Partner States agree to take concerted measures to foster co-operation in the joint and efficient management and the sustainable utilisation of natural resources within the Community for the mutual benefit of the Partner States.
Article 114, section 2(a)(i) with regard to the conservation and management of forests calls for Partner States to take necessary measures through:
the adoption of common policies for, and the exchange of information on the development, conservation and management of natural forests, commercial plantations and natural reserves; the joint promotion of common forestry practices within the Community;
the joint utilisation of forestry training and research facilities;
the adoption of common regulations for the conservation and management of all catchment forests within the Community;
the establishment of uniform regulations for the utilisation of forestry resources in order to reduce the depletion of natural forests and avoid desertification within the Community; and
the establishment of Api-Agro Forestry Systems.
The specific objectives of the forest policy will among other things involve the following:
Protecting and enhancing the quality of EAC regional forest resources for the benefits of its citizens and future generations including productive capacity, health and vitality;
Ensuring that extraction of forest products in the region is sustainable and done in accordance with laws and regulations governing forest management;
Maintaining or enhancing the ecosystem services provided by forests; and
Supporting EAC’s partner states in managing forest resources to produce the range and mix of goods and services demanded at local, national, regional and global levels.
The Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management was signed by the Republic of Kenya, Republic of Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania on 3rd April 2006. The Protocol has since been ratified by the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Kenya in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi were not yet EAC Partner States at the time the Protocol was negotiated and signed.
The United Republic of Tanzania has not ratified the Protocol due to a number of issues. The process to address these issues in order to finalise the ratification process and make the Protocol operational is ongoing under the guidance of the Council of Ministers. The Protocol is currently not in force and hence not a legally binding document pending ratification by all Partner States.
