National Environment Fund

The Swaziland National Environment Fund operates in association with local communities in different areas of Swaziland. The objective of the fund is to support the protection and conservation of the environment and to support the communities’ participation in those relating activities.

The fund approves and supports projects on communal level that needs financial funding in the work towards sustaining the local environment. Currently 15 community projects are targeted for 2014.

Impact on Communities

The Environment Fund has had a significant impact on communities where the projects have been implemented. The projects have been promoting unity within the communities, as well as empowering women in particular to take a leadership role on environmental protection. People have gathered for a united case while sacrificing their time for the local environmental issues. Awareness has been spread among communities as a positive result.

Challenges

The challenges with maintaining the projects are the politics and barriers that might include, possible conflicts between different parties, as well as price inflation. If environmental project is going to be successful one important key is education. Further the ownership should belong to the communities.

Luve Wetland and Donga Rehabilitation Project

The fund has approved the Luve wetland and donga Rehabilitation Project. The project is currently ongoing and the aim is to protect the wetland in the Luve wetland area. The project is done through an NGO called Citizen Empowerment (CEC) and a contract was signed between SEA and CEC.

A partner for the programme is MTN, who has contributed to complete the fencing of the wetlands as well as provided additional funding of E30,000. Focus has also been aimed at tree planting and gabion construction, both which are necessary actions in the area of Luve.

Lobamba Waste Management Project

This project was funded to help improve the waste management issues at Lobamba Inkhundla. All around Lobamba waste is being collected and from Monday to Thursday a tractor is running with a licensed employer driver to collect it. Furthermore Lobamba youth centre has set up an administrative office as a service pay point. The current status of the project is running efficiently and making progress.

In order to implement this project the Board wanted to guarantee the capacity of the community. Last year in 2013, Swaziland Cooperative College was facilitating and arranging the workshop on training environmental projects management.

The success of the project is the stakeholders (waste producers) participation and involvement which also brings sustainability to the project.

Lawuba Wetland Protection

The projects aim is to protect 6ha wetlands in the area. The forming of a working committee took longer than expected, which resulted in that the project has been delayed.

Sigwe Wetland Protection Project

Implemented in 2010 and a positive effect of the project is that the fauna has developed. The women in the area have from raw material started to harvesting handcraft. During the rainy season the spongy effect of the wetland has been observed.

l at its initial stage as fence poles have been erected.

Sivule Wetland Protection

Another project implemented is the Sivule wetland protection project. It included a wetland area of 12ha in size and it covered the boundaries of three chiefdoms. Several meetings has been held with all chiefdoms, but because of conflicts between these, the project has not been able to start at this point.

Ntondozi Botanic Gardens

Material for the project was finalized in December 2010. It has several face lets such as restaurants, aquariums etc. Before the project can fully take off, an approval from the Land Management Board (LMB) has to take place. Due to this, meetings with its committee has been held were advice was given to liaise with the LMB. In order for the project to begin, a lease title has to be obtained.

Langa Water Spring and Earth Dam Protection

The Langa project was the first project to be funded by the Environment Fund in 2009. The implementing agent is here the Swaziland Farmers Foundation (SFDF), and a contract is being developed for SEA and SFDF for the implementation of the project. In updating on the project we can see that the spring has been protected in the duration of the projects but has since dried up.

The earth dam has been successfully protected. There is also a need to set up the garden as proposed. The project has currently been stalled due to various conflicts.

Malkerns Waste Project

Waste skips has been delivered to the Malkerns Community in creating cleaner and healthier areas. The implementation of the skips has been successful, as they are now being used and distributed all around Malkerns.

List of Projects

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