A Call to Action on World Environment Day 2025
By Chiyedzo Josiah Dimbo
The Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) joins hands with millions across the globe in commemorating World Environment Day 2025, under the timely theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution.” This year’s theme is not just a slogan — it is a wake-up call. It underscores the scientific consensus and global urgency surrounding the plastic pollution crisis and reaffirms the international community’s 2022 commitment toward a legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution.
But while the global focus turns toward plastics, Zimbabwe faces an even broader environmental emergency, demanding equally urgent attention. Ours is not just a crisis of plastics, but a full-blown ecological breakdown fueled by destructive, unregulated mining, institutional weaknesses, and chronic failure to enforce existing environmental laws.
Despite having a robust legal framework in theory, Zimbabwe is falling short in practice. The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) remains underfunded and underpowered, unable to check the environmental destruction spreading across the country. The situation is exacerbated by mining companies—some operating without valid permits—who openly flout Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations.
CNRG is alarmed by the worsening pollution, deforestation, and water contamination, especially in rural areas rich in minerals but poor in environmental protection. The widespread use of mercury and cyanide in small-scale and illegal gold and chrome mining has poisoned rivers and soil, leading to severe land degradation. Villages downstream from these sites face health risks, food insecurity, and water scarcity, all while shouldering the burden of a crisis they did not create.
The Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Winston Chitando, has acknowledged the damage caused by rampant mining, but acknowledgment must now give way to action. The situation demands an urgent course correction.
We cannot talk about sustainable development while turning a blind eye to unchecked mining, environmental crime, and policy paralysis. The future of our environment—and of generations to come—is being sacrificed on the altar of short-term economic gain.
CNRG Calls for Immediate Action:
1. Suspend all mining activities lacking valid EIAs and permits.
2. Ensure transparency and public accountability in the issuance of mining licenses.
3. Increase funding and capacity of the Environmental Management Agency.
4. Integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards into all development plans.
5. Align national environmental policies with global frameworks like the upcoming Global Plastic Pollution Treaty.
World Environment Day must be more than a calendar event. It must be a catalyst for change—a moment when Zimbabwe shifts from promises to tangible action. We must stop treating environmental harm as a side issue. It is a justice issue, a health issue, and a human rights issue.
Let this be the year we say enough—to pollution without accountability, to mining without conscience, and to development without sustainability.
Let this be the year we move toward environmental justice, where communities are safeguarded, ecosystems are restored, and polluters are held accountable.
This World Environment Day, Zimbabwe must choose: the path of destruction, or the path of sustainability and justice.
The time to act is now.
