HARARE - Local legislators have been challenged to come up with comprehensive climate change policy and legislation that includes local communities in the participatory structures. Speaking at a policy and advocacy breakfast seminar for parliamentarians at a local hotel on Wednesday, Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association representative, Shamiso Mtisi, said Zimbabwe had no comprehensive legal framework surrounding environmental issues.
We will fail to convince our people in the communities of the need to fight issues that cause climate change and other environmental aspects. We need legislation and policies that will include the local communities in all participatory structures so that they meaningfully participate in these issues, said Mtisi.
He also highlighted the need to protect citizens environmental rights, giving the Chiyadzwa diamond mining as an example of one area in which environmental rights had been seriously violated.
A senior officer at the meteorological department, Tirivanhu Muhwati, said that the meteorological department was currently so poorly equipped such that climate prediction had become almost impossible.
One of the biggest threats to Zimbabwe is the growing climate unpredictability, which makes economic planning difficulty, said Muhwati.
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