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Strengthening Community Resilience through Sustainable Non-Timber Forest Products

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17 Jan, 2025

This post was originally published on Climate Links

Strengthening Community Resilience through Sustainable Non-Timber Forest Products
jschoshinski
Thu, 01/16/2025 – 18:32

In Zimbabwe, deforestation and habitat loss are not only threatening the country’s biodiversity and ability to mitigate climate change, but also threatening individuals’ livelihoods and their ability to adapt to climate change. Of the nearly 6,000 species of indigenous plants found in the country, some 900 of them are traditionally used as food, cosmetics, or medicine. These non-timber forest products (NTFPs) serve as supplemental sources of income for approximately 60 percent of rural households, providing an important source of income diversification as changes in rainfall—in part due to climate change—threaten traditional agricultural activities. By generating income for rural communities, Zimbabwe’s NTFPs offer a market-led approach to boosting climate resilience. 

The Economic Contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products in Zimbabwe 

In the landscapes where the USAID Resilience ANCHORS Activity works, one in six people, mostly women, rely on forests and wilderness areas for their livelihoods. Resilience ANCHORS supports community-led initiatives and locally prioritized interventions, including conserving forests and developing value chains for key NTFPs, such as Ximenia, mongongo nuts, wooden banana, marula, Kalahari melon seed, and rosella. Forest-based resources from remote, semi-arid regions can contribute up to 35 percent of rural incomes, while NTFP products like thatching grass, wild plant foods, mushrooms, honey, and mopane worms have an estimated annual subsistence value (i.e, the value associated with people using the products to support themselves rather than selling the products) of $294.3 million. Conserving these natural resources leads to strengthened livelihoods and healthier, more stable communities by supporting income diversification, which helps agricultural communities adapt to the impacts of climate change on crop yields.

Using Laws and Regulations to Strengthen Community Resilience

While NTFPs are vital resources for local communities, the lack of transparent laws and regulations has led to overexploitation and missed business opportunities. Limited awareness of the regulatory framework among stakeholders and community members exacerbates this issue. Resilience ANCHORS has supported the formation of NTFP collector groups that have developed formal governance structures, but the next objective is creating long-term sustainability through a robust legal framework that protects the environment and promotes community wellbeing. 

Sustainable harvesting remains critical for the long-term viability of Zimbabwe’s NTFPs, forests, and environment. Resilience ANCHORS, in collaboration with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Local Government and the Environmental Management Agency, conducted workshops to build awareness of the legislative challenges and foster dialogue. This resulted in the drafting of NTFP Model Bylaw, which seeks to address three key goals:

  1. Fill gaps in the legal framework: Outline benefit-sharing mechanisms to foster fair trade practices, as community ownership and management of NTFPs ensures equitable distribution among stakeholders. 
  2. Promote sustainability: Develop permits to control harvesting, trade volumes, and fees to generate revenue for conservation efforts and capacity-building initiatives.
  3. Provide clear guidelines for NTFP harvesting and benefit-sharing: Specify sustainable harvesting quantities and methods to prevent over-harvesting and safeguard resources for future generations. 

The NTFP Model Bylaw will result in:

  • Enhanced community resilience through sustainable NTFP management by promoting sustainable livelihoods, environmental conservation, and social cohesion. 
  • Clarified benefit-sharing mechanisms to reduce exploitation and promote transparency, fairness, and community ownership. 
  • Informed climate-resilient natural resource management by promoting sustainable harvesting, conserving biodiversity, and enhancing ecosystem resilience. 

Effective implementation of these regulations requires collaboration, capacity-building, and regular monitoring. If adopted and implemented successfully, these regulations could help grow NTFP activities in a way that increases livelihoods and builds community resilience to climate change in Zimbabwe.

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By generating income for rural communities, Zimbabwe’s NTFPs offer a market-led approach to boosting climate resilience.

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Thu, 01/16/2025 – 12:00

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In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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