Abstract: With the increasing poverty of social economy and daily life, people in Zambia have to interfere with natural ecosystems for their survival. More than 60% of the population is rurally based and depends directly on natural environment, and in turn, induces environmental degradation in a large extent. Such environmental pressures include forest degradation, increasing soil cover loss and soil erosion, and large-scale climate variability with recurrent droughts. The rapid population growth and the rising consumption trend at the back drop of poor economic performance are leading to the over-harvesting of natural resources and the pollution of air, water and land. Due to the lack of data on Zambia’s ecosystems, parts of the research findings were not quantified, but the controversy between social development and environmental protection in Zambia was objectively existed.

Key words: Transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) rice, Bt insecticidal crystal proteins, Ecological safety, Soil micro-ecosystem