Environmental protection versus development

What can a small impoverished nation do to preserve its environment when faced with a destructive population growth rate and an imperative to lure industrial investment to create jobs?

While Swaziland, a landlocked kingdom of less than one million people, struggles with these questions, conservationists are heartened by the first major victory of an environmental monitoring body whose success is by no means assured.

The Swaziland Environmental Authority has temporarily halted operations at a sugar processing plant in the eastern lowveld area of Big Bend. Although plant management told the local press that waste pools that overflowed into the Usutu river when it rained were a minor matter that has been cleared up, sources with the environmental authority said the factory was stopped from drilling "super deep" boreholes to disperse industrial waste into the groundwater supply.

"It takes thousands of years to regenerate an aquifer, and if they are polluted an entire section of the country loses its principal water supply," said an official source.

The plant closure is the first major penalty imposed by the environmental authority in its four years of existence. But sceptics wonder if the authority can compete with the government's agenda of attracting new businesses at all cost.

"Two-thirds of Swazis live below the poverty line, and creating jobs is our priority," Finance Minister Majozi Sithole emphasised to parliament when he presented this year's budget.

His cabinet colleague, Magwagwa Mdluli, minister of nature resources whose portfolio includes the environmental authority, said: "Jobs are important, but so is quality of life, and an unhealthy environment is a deterrent to that. Tourism is a major source of jobs, too, and visitors come to Swaziland to enjoy what is regarded as one of Southern Africa's most scenic countries."

Ted Reilly, executive director of Big Game Parks of Swaziland, has used his position as counsellor to King Mswati to advocate for tougher environmental laws. "The political will to push preservation must come from the top, and King Mswati is an avid conservationist."

A report released in February by the Swaziland Natural History Society, showing botanists' findings that indigenous plant species are disappearing in the kingdom, was an alarm bell that coincided with similar findings by the agriculture ministry.
Agriculture Minister Roy Fanourakis last month tabled a Forestry Bill that makes indigenous plants protected species. Like a successful Game Act that has stopped poaching of protected animal species with stiff fines, the Forestry Act calls for jail terms for repeated spoilers of the environment.

"The traditional way of life where people take from the land whatever they want is no longer sustainable. There are just too many people, and not enough land," said Fanourakis.

The ultimate test for the burgeoning environmental movement will be the Millennium Airport, an ambitious US $129 million development government sees as a way to lure tourists and investors. But the airport's planned location places flight paths directly over three game parks, which will necessitate the eradication of game bird populations that might collide with jets.

By law, game animals may not be harmed, and the airport project should be moved or shelved. But no government official will acknowledge this fact, and the project's environmental impact study is "a joke", according to Ara Monadjem, a biologist at the University of Swaziland. Monadjem's specialty is nesting raptors, of which there are 200 breeding pairs, the largest concentration in Southern Africa, in the proposed airport area.

"All the birds will all have to go to make way for an airport for tourists, who will then be denied some of the very wild game they come to Swaziland to see," he said.

A small country with big dreams of economic advancement, Swaziland still recognises the value of its natural environmental. The tension between these competing interests may be determined one way or the other with a decision to proceed with the new airport.