Building the Resilience of Landlocked Developing Countries to the Impacts of Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation

and Drought

Zimbabwe

Location

Background

• Zimbabwe is a landlocked country covering 390 757km2

• It is divided into 5 agro-ecological regions based on rainfall regimes

• Regions 4 and 5 are characterised with low rainfall regimes.

• Up to 60% of the country is semi-arid marginal agricultural lands that suffer from drought occurrence and land degradation

Challenges faced by being landlocked such as Zimbabwe

• Limited access to marine resources necessary for nutritional provision and livelihoods options leading to high dependency on the terrestrial natural capital.

• Trading and investment potential is compromised and costs increased because of the lack of ports eg a Steel company is mooting an idea of pumping molten steel through a pipeline to the port for export.

Challenges cntd..

• Dependence on passage through other countries for global markets,

• Roads are quickly damaged due to heavy trucks as they transport bulky products or excess loads on the roads.

• High costs of road maintenance compromise the competiveness of Zimbabwe markets

• Compromised viability of the agricultural sector due to high import and export costs for inputs and outputs respectively.

Challenges cntd.

• Transport systems are susceptible and sensitive to political and economic manipulation

• Vulnerability to encroachment of desert like conditions, land degradation and drought.

• This is particularly true of the South Eastern regions of Zimbabwe which fall in region 4 and 5.

Challenges cntd

• Semi- arid areas are gradually encroaching the previously humid zone turning them to semi-arid transition zones due to climate change.

• Zimbabwe has suffered from the effects of climate change

• There are more frequent and severe droughts since the 1980s than before.

• A new phenomena that was previously very rare is the occurrence of serious droughts

Successes in combating DLDD

• Investment in alternative technology to harness those natural resources that are abundant

• solar energy though cost is preventing wider use

• Irrigation and water harvesting• Empowerment of communities to solve own

challenges

Recommendations

• Flagship transboundary projects are necessary to reverse DLDD

• Signature programmes for landlocked countries

• Funding mechanisms for projects • Investment in good transport infrastructure• Access to services by affected communities as

well as opening country to ports

I THANK YOU