The following guiding questions are aligned to each of the three main Leadership Dialogues planned for the Stockholm+50 meeting and will be integrated into the overall consultation agenda and report. Please refer to the question number in your comment.

  1. LD1: Reflecting on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity of all:
     
    1. How can we restore and regenerate a positive relationship with nature? List 2 or 3 good practices and pathways that you would like to see scaled up to enable a move to a healthy planet?
       
    2. What are the actions that you (your group) would take to scale up the change towards a healthy planet? What policies/structures need to be in place for you to take such action?
       
    3. How could marginalised and vulnerable groups benefit from policies and initiatives designed to restore a more sustainable and resilient relationship with nature (that mitigates nature risks)?
       
    4. How can we safeguard the rights of people and nature, including among others, indigenous peoples and local communities, environmental defenders, women, youth, future generations?
       
    5. What are the new or prioritized set of metrics and indicators needed for tracking our progress towards a healthier and more prosperous planet?

Comments (12)

Emelie Isaksen
Emelie Isaksen Moderator

Hello! Please share your thoughts below by creating an account and posting a comment - you can think of it a little bit like a facebook comment section. You can respond to and add to other people's comments as well as add your own, once posted, other people can like and respond to yours! 

All ideas, thoughts and insights shared in this discussion will be compiled and used in a national report for Zimbabwe. This report will directly feed into discussions and reports being produced at the high level international environmental meeting that is taking place in Sweden in June - Stockholm +50. 

We are very much looking forward to following the discussions going forward! If you want to read more about the global meeting and why it is important in Zimbabwe and beyond, you can do so here! 

Natalie Mangondo
Natalie Mangondo

1. First, to restore and regenerate a positive relationship with nature we need to use our indigenous knowledge systems which have assisted us in maintaining a sustainable and positive relationship with nature. Secondly, we need to make agriculture and food systems sustainable and make healthy, sustainable diets accessible to low income households. The amount of food loss and waste in developed countries is alarming, as is intensive agriculture and livestock-rearing. Third, we need to increase QUALITY financing available for nature and resilience, and make it easier to access said finance.

Natalie Mangondo
Natalie Mangondo

2. As someone involved in climate finance in various capacities, it is necessary for governments to create an enabling environment for non-state actors to act at the scale required towards a healthy environment. As the YOUNGO Finance and Markets Working Group, we recently held a webinar in which young people from around the world shared their ideas on what both government and non-state actors need to do to make financial flows climate-consistent. Some of the views from the webinar can be seen in the image below: Role of Stakeholders in Aligning Financial Flows With Low-Emissions, Climate-Resilient Development

Johnny Whitfield
Johnny Whitfield

As a miner and prospector I spend a lot of time in remote parts of Zimbabwe. There is large scale deforestation happening across the country - mostly because people do not have access to electricity and have no alternative fuel for cooking. Rural electrification levy that the Govt impose on users is not being implemented so an alternative and sustainable fuel for cooking would save a lot of our indigenous hardwood trees. Mining, tobacco farming and the growing charcoal industry to send to China are also a major threat and needs to be stopped before it becomes rampant. 
With soaring levels of unemployment people look for any avenue to make money and natural resources are free and being exploited like never before without thought for the future. An education program on sustainable lifestyles including not cutting trees, not burning, composting in town instead of burning rubbish, not littering and a comprehensive recycling effort - aimed at industry and domestic will all have major impacts - because right now they are non existent in the country. 

Emelie Isaksen
Emelie Isaksen Moderator

Dear Johnny, thank you very much for your contribution! Could you potentially elaborate on any actions that you (your group) would take to scale up the change towards a healthy planet? What policies/structures need to be in place for you to take such action? 

Jenna
Jenna

Context: URBAN

1.

i) Co-creation by citizens to effect separation-at-source of solid waste with food waste kept out of landfill. Food waste to be composted using Bokashi methods to activate for quicker decomposition (feeds into second good practice below). Circularity. Zero waste. Urban mines at stalls on the side of the roads as "Transfer Stations" so as to avoid mining below ground. Waste = Value. Document to be sent - "2022-02-03 Responsible Waste Management by Citizens". Incorporate this into Primary Schools with the "Value of Waste" flyer (to be sent). Opportunity for vulnerable people to set up "transfer stations" and network with existing recycling companies to incentivise collection and storage of clean waste. 

ii) Nurseries of indigenous flora species endemic to the location for planting on municipal verges - Environmental Buddies – WE LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT (ebztrust.org)(6) Tree Knowers and Growers Zimbabwe | Facebook. Seed calendar of indigenous flora endemic to Harare to be sent - most of these have the opportunity to create food security because of the fruit - utopian visual here of school children walking to school and eating the fruit alongside the urban roads. Opportunity here for vulnerable persons to benefit from remuneration for collection / propagation of indigenous seeds locally available in their home areas instead of travelling into the city to beg. SAY NO TO monoculture and mowing lawns on verges....create paths by mowing indigenous grasses. Locally available foods sold from street stalls for seasonal produce - incorporate local chefs in the development of en trend cuisine.

iii) Bicycles (active transportation) - the effector to mitigate Climate Change and at the same time as meeting SDGs simultaneously. Infrastructure for cycling routes needs to be prioritised. Our roads are amply wide enough to accommodate safe ACTIVE (walking / cycling) transportation links. Harare does not have to retrofit cycle lanes - by 2040 with a doubling of urban population - we will need to. Furthermore, the drive for green transportation needs to be started yesterday. Harare has a dilapidated network which needs to be revitalised (City of Harare in partnership with GIZ and City of Munich are currently trying to get this off the ground. Furthermore, when the western world ditches their fossil fuel based transportation - Africa stands to be a dumping ground for these filthy machines. Policy needs to be enacted, bicycles need to be adopted. Currently seen as "the poor man's vehicle" - policy should set to incentivise owning a bicycle. Bike-shares stationed at current petrol/diesel service stations sends a message that there is a cheaper alternative. Security companies (Safeguard / Securicor / PJM Security) can station their reaction vehicles near bike-share points for security and Econet can develop a release app. Logistics on bicycles with said security companies can also assist to redistribute compressed recyclables from communities to "transfer stations' and incentives given to "off-set" the riders contribution (Econet maybe with a QR code). Politicians, NGOs, corporates, educational facilities should utilise bicycles for distances less than 5kms, or tap into the Namibian electric bicycle market....Ebikes4Africa - Sales | Rentals | Deliveries

To be fair - private vehicle use in the city should be avoided at all costs with a carbon footprint of 112g per kilometre. People at the top need to set the example. Walking school buses - Walking School Bus

iv) Environmental audits of private schools, and specialism of sectors e.g. creation of a school becoming a solar farm or a rain water capture centre (with every other aspect being address), and then supplying to their neighbourhood (car parks with solar, roof space...) and then these private schools partner with a government school to upscale and enhance the sustainable infrastructure of that environment. Target children to learn these things for the immediate future in 10 years - change culture and outlook. Food gardens at school as mandatory part of the Agriculture syllabus.

 

The NEW SET OF METRICS SHOULD BE a carbon emissions indicator on the item being promoted (as with recommended daily allowances and ingredients on food items) along the lines of How Bad Are Bananas? E.g. the creation of a bicycle's carbon footprint is likely to be insignificant as opposed to a small sedan - yet the car continues to emit carbon emissions, and the cost to the earth to power a bicycle is the chosen food and thus is negligible. A barometer of how much carbon we have emitted as a plant, and how much is left before we've exhausted our options. Quantify our life choices. (Electric vehicles powered by coal, brown paper bags that would need to be used three times before they are better than a plastic bag, and cotton totes to be used 130 times more than a plastic bag...we need to question what we are doing, where do things come from, what is the cost to the earth?)

 

Emelie Isaksen
Emelie Isaksen Moderator

Many thanks for this very elaborated response Jenna, and thank you for highlighting some very interesting and tangible suggested solutions that should be scaled up!  Your insights are valued and will be taken on board! 

EnviroPress Zimbabwe
EnviroPress Zimbabwe

Question 1. A healthy planet can be realized by strengthening advocacy towards a phase-out of plastic packaging and plastic carrier bags. In this country, plastic is one of the biggest pollutants and are a big threat to the healthy of water bodies and aqua-life. Stakeholders should also finance industrial research in alternative packaging while strengthening the capacity of existing and new players to produce less toxic packaging. The recycling sector must be incentivized and expanded so that more plastics can be removed from the environment. 

Emelie Isaksen
Emelie Isaksen Moderator

Many thanks Enviropress for contributing to the discussion! We value your input and are very happy to see that media is taking part in the discussions as well! 

LYNNE James
LYNNE James

Many thanks for this platform and the opportunity to contribute. 

'A healthy planet' and 'prosperity for all' are hard to fit into the same sentence. 

The discussion around population figures WORLD WIDE needs to be opened and put on the table. In Zimbabwe today 'a healthy planet ' is on a direct collision course with 'prosperity for all'  - the 'all' is simply too many.

It appears unrealistic to assume that our natural resources can possibly support our burgeoning population in this desperate economic situation, where so many of our people are turning to their immediate environment to find sources of fuel, food, shelter etc. 

Many good suggestions have been mentioned above on how to mitigate the immense damage being done, but in the long term, we as humans need to be more responsible for our reproductive habits - ALL of us. It can no longer be our 'right' - no matter WHERE WE LIVE on Earth - to dance to our own tune when it comes to procreation. 

Over population is an issue Let's get the topic on the table and start the discussion. It will take great strength and commitment and many many years to see us change, but let's at least START the conversation.

Our numbers are a problem. How do we deal with that?