Red Ribbons and Green Issues: Exploring HIV/AIDS As An Environmental Concern

The Geography Division of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal hosted a seminar on 24 February 2006 on the impact of HIV and AIDS on the environment.

Sue Erskine, a researcher at HEARD with a specialist interest in geographic and environmental studies, presented the findings of a project funded by USAID and completed in 2004 to investigate the usage of and impact on natural resources and environmental enterprises within the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The project?’s frame of reference centred on the knowledge that the impact levels and time-lag inherent in the journey from HIV infection to AIDS illness and death are typically underestimated, whether in households, businesses, the environment and the economy in general. Previous research has indicated that as the epidemic deepens poverty, and as illness and death increase, the dependency of poor households on natural resources may increase. In some situations, this might lead to exploitation and degradation of the environment.

The focus of the study was on the ability of an environmental conservation agency to protect and manage areas in their sphere in the face of these challenges. The project examined the susceptibility and vulnerability to HIV and AIDS within the workforce of Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife.

As background, data was shown relating to the generic organisational costs of HIV and AIDS, with its effects on capital and labour demand and supply. An institutional audit of risk and vulnerability was conducted at the agency, which showed that the mainly male employees are relatively affluent, which provides them with a means to easy access to multiple sexual partners (and which might make them targets for sex-workers); their susceptibility to HIV infection and vulnerability to its impacts are exacerbated by the remoteness of their workplace and its distance from their homes.

Although good in-house HIV/AIDS knowledge and other life-skills and literacy training programmes are in place, employees have little recourse to HIV prevention and treatment facilities. Stigma and discrimination around HIV and AIDS are relatively low in the workplace ethos, but the information provided was not being effectively assimilated and processed into behaviour change. It was also found that the lower ranking staff members were most at risk.

Since all posts in the organisation are critical for its operations, there is low flexibility that could be afforded in terms of absence due to illness. In addition, the organisation has limited options to mitigate this, because:

• Many of the older employees in low-skilled jobs have limited literacy which obviates their being assigned to desk-jobs because of poor health.
• There were no options to ?“mechanise?” activities in the bush or hospitality environment, as all activities rely on human interaction and resources.
• The agency already employs a large force of less skilled workers and most staff are already multi-skilled.
• Outsourcing was not always useful because of the specialist nature of the work and its reliance on thorough knowledge of the particular setting.


Morale among all employees was becoming a concern amongst managers, as restructuring, downsizing and increased absenteeism meant that there were not always enough personnel engaged to give annual leave, time off or time to attend training.

Examples of the kinds of threat to the environment and its resources, both locally and in surrounding countries, wrought by rural householders?’ efforts to cope with the epidemic, include the following:


• The muthi trade in Durban?’s Warwick Triangle Market is decimating local biodiversity through illegal gathering of flora and fauna used in the preparation of traditional medicines.
• Lack of cemetery space is resulting in inappropriate burials, which infect water supplies.
• Grazing land is being lost through its use for cemeteries and through soil erosion once vegetation is cleared.
• The safe disposal of non-biodegradable medical waste from home-based care-giving in both urban and rural areas is becoming an issue.
• Rising poverty, as has been tracked in Malawi and Uganda, greatly increases the use of wood for fuel and building, as well as the consumption of wild plants and animals, and competition with these animals and their space for plant resources.


Analysing these rural household responses, it was found that as the coping strategies become normative, the threat to the environment is intensified.

In going forward, the agency recognised that prevention efforts, including training with appropriate information and methods, should be sustained. The possibility of mitigating interventions such as ARV provision and treatment for opportunistic infections would also be investigated. Other forms of care and support, such as policy reformulation for medical boarding, were to be considered. The complex issues of pre-employment HIV testing were also being confronted.

The need for creative and committed leadership towards these solutions was recognised, so that innovative and responsive options could be devised. It would be essential to maintain full consultation and collaboration with not only the workforce and union leaders, but also the surrounding community and the agency?’s other partners. It was acknowledged that policy and procedure should be generated from the bottom up to dispel myths through participatory responses and ideas.

?“There are no generic solutions to these challenges,?” said Erskine. ?“Progress can only be achieved through testing and adapting proven best practice and expanding on these through open communications within an egalitarian ethos. Management should not see themselves as apart from or above this process, but as susceptible to risk and vulnerability as all others in their sphere.?” The study determined that community-based enterprises are very important for broad benefits of HIV/AIDS interventions.

The full report can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page and, for more information on the "Red Ribbons and Green Issues" Project, please visit the HEARD website via the hyperlink also found on the righthand side of this page.