Environmental pollution is one of the most serious global challenges that affects the natural environment and human health worldwide.
The Environmental Pollution Programme is a UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme funded by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and delivered by JNCC. The programme delivered the Reducing Pollution Through Partnership scoping year project (2021–2022), which explored the current state of pollution in six developing countries and informed the development of a multi-year Environmental Pollution Programme.
Background
Pollution disproportionately affects the most vulnerable groups. Around 99% of the 3 million people poisoned by pesticides annually and 90% of the 7 million annual air pollution-related deaths are in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs).
Key causes of pollution in developing countries include the growth of cities, rising demands for energy, increasing mining and smelting, the global spread of toxic chemicals, and the use of pesticides in agriculture. In some developing countries, the effects of these drivers of pollution are often magnified by a lack of pollution literacy, infrastructure and monitoring data.
The Project
The Environmental Pollution Programme's scoping year, the Reducing Pollution Through Partnership project, aimed to share expertise and best practice, investing in research to strengthen the capacity of LMICs to reduce exposure to the adverse effects of pollution. Reducing the impacts of pollution helps to improve human health, whilst assisting in reversing biodiversity loss and therefore, supporting greater ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.
Our priority was to work with pollution experts and stakeholders in a pilot set of countries to develop an evidence base on the specific pollution challenges experienced by LMICs within their environmental and social context, and to support identification of priority issues and countries.
We worked with six pilot countries: Angola, Indonesia, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Vietnam.
JNCC developed a tool to promote engagement of pilot countries with the project. The pollution Global Analysis tool was created using species data and pollution threat categories from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Assessment.
Heatmaps were produced by overlaying ranges of species (area in which species occur) assessed as Threatened or Near Threatened by pollution. Depth of colour signals where multiple species are impacted and the darker 'hotspot' areas can help inform where to focus efforts to reduce pollution.
The map is an example of a heatmap from the Global Analysis of pollution.
JNCC worked with partners in pilot countries to validate the results of the pollution analysis for their country and discuss improvements. This information was used to help plan possible actions for the future wider pollution programme.
Further work included incorporating feedback from pilot country workshops into the design of the wider programme.
Any suggestions for improvement and/or challenges were taken into consideration for future development of the wider pollution programme.
We also piloted capacity building actions on the ground to test our approach and supported evidence projects needed to further increase our understanding of the impacts of pollution on the pilot countries.
Project Objectives
- Develop an evidence base on the specific pollution challenges experienced by LMICs within their environmental and social context, and to support identification of priority issues and countries;
- Establish networks in pilot countries to deliver pollution reduction activities;
- Provide support to institutions to (a) strengthen the global evidence base on pollution and (b) improve LMICs ability to develop policy and regulatory frameworks; and
- Develop effective governance to support future phases of the programme, enabling us to showcase UK expertise.
Project Partners
Project Outputs
Outputs include:
- Workshop reports summarising results and conclusions from the pilot country workshops. The reports also collate feedback and lessons learned used to inform the wider programme;
- Evidence reports consisting of a literature review and information about pollution for each country;
- Capacity-building activities to tackle some of the country needs;
- Field activities aimed at creating awareness about pollution; and
- Additional evidence projects led by Defra and JNCC:
- Desk review of country national priorities and barriers to action on pollution;
- Report identifying cross-compartmental (land, freshwater, marine, air, products, waste and living organism) pollutants in developing countries;
- Expansion of JNCC’s International Climate Finance (ICF) database of Nature-based solutions (NbS) case studies to include pollution threats.
Angola
In Angola, JNCC collaborated with partners at EcoAngola and EcoJango, to prioritise the analysis, collection and validation of data on pollution in Angola. This generated a greater understanding of the impacts of pollution on biodiversity, and supported the identification of priority pollution issues. Partners also implemented capacity building in the form of an environmentally focussed teacher training course, known as EcoEducando. Available is a main Evidence Report and a Workshop Report.
Mozambique
In Mozambique, JNCC collaborated with partners at Eduardo Mondlane University, to develop an evidence base on the specific pollution challenges experienced by Mozambique within the country’s environmental and social context. Partners have also delivered capacity building in the form of a project which used various art forms to promote awareness of pollution and the impacts on the environment, known as Fighting Pollution with Art. Available is a main Evidence Report and a Workshop Report.
Namibia
In Namibia, JNCC collaborated with partners at the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF), to bring together information on different sources and types of pollution experienced by Namibia. The report, the first of its kind for Namibia, includes data from published literature and discussions with local experts. Partners also produced information for farmers on safer use of pesticides to start taking action against one of the main sources of pollution in the country. Available is a main Evidence Report, a Workshop Report and an Agrochemicals Toolkit.
South Africa
In South Africa, JNCC collaborated with partners at the Institute of Natural Resources NPC (INR) and Dr Nick Rivers-Moore, to bring stakeholders across South Africa together to focus on the threats posed to biodiversity by pollution using a data-driven approach. This has helped to validate and improve awareness around pollution threats, as well as highlighting an opportunity to encourage a country-wide approach to mitigate pollution impacts. Available is a main Evidence Report, a Workshop Report and a Capacity Building Project Report focussed on a situational analysis and embedded awareness-raising campaign for nappy pollution.
JNCC is continuing to support partners in South Africa in delivering action research into the environmental impacts of solid waste and wastewater, as pollution areas of specific concern identified during the Reducing Pollution Through Partnership (RPTP) scoping year project.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, JNCC collaborated with partners at the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) and Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE), to bring stakeholders across Vietnam together to discuss the biggest pollution challenges facing the country. This has helped to promote demand for further environmental management and scientific research in Vietnam surrounding pollution. Available is a one-page summary of the two workshops hosted by partners in Vietnam.
Defra is continuing to partner with Vietnam as part of the Environmental Pollution Programme, where research will be conducted into the environmental impacts of pesticide use and agricultural open burning as key pollution issues identified during the scoping year.
Communication
JNCC developed six workshop information packages, one for each pilot country, to support the validation of the results from the global analysis and aid discussions of pollution in each country.
The information packages included videos to introduce the project and describe the global analysis methods and results. These are available to view via JNCC's YouTube channel:
Each pilot country also received a report and a video describing the results from the global analysis specific to that country. These are available upon request.
Contacts
To learn more about this project please contact us.
Images
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