SANF 13 No 9 – by Egline Tauya
The establishment of transfrontier conservation areas is one of the key initiatives for the sustainable management of natural resources in the Zambezi River Basin.
The eight countries in the Zambezi basin rely heavily on the exploitation of natural resources and the environment for their economies, and are thus taking steps to harmonise strategies for proper management of natural resources, many of which are shared.
According to a new publication, the Zambezi River Basin Atlas of the Changing Environment, six Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) are at different stages of development within the Zambezi basin.
The Atlas reports that some Memoranda of Understanding have been signed to facilitate the establishment of the TFCAs, while other agreements are still at the conceptual stage.
Those with MoUs are the Malawi-Zambia TFCA, as well as the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA involving Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The joint venture by the tourism authorities covers the management of cultural heritage of local communities, hunting and fishing, and wildlife conservation.
KAZA is the world’s largest transfrontier park and was launched in March 2012 by environment ministers from the five countries.
The historic launch followed the signing of the treaty by the Heads of State and Government of the respective countries in August 2011.
Situated in the Okavango and Zambezi river basins where the borders of the five countries converge, the KAZA TFCA covers an area of about 444,000 square kilometres. It consists of 36 national parks, game reserves, community conservancies and game management areas.
The conservation area boasts of numerous tourist attractions such as the Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe, San rock paintings in Botswana and the absorbing wildlife population in the region.
This high concentration of attractions is expected to create an entirely new assortment of tourism opportunities in southern Africa, presenting new opportunities for socio-economic development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), resulting in deeper integration among member states.
It would also allow participating countries to jointly market their attractions, presenting prospective tourists with a wide range of opportunities and experiences.
The KAZA partner countries have identified tourism as one of the key drivers for socio-economic development in the region due to its strong multiplier effects and are determined to accelerate growth of the tourism industry in the region.
The development of the KAZA is receiving support from various development partners, with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) contributing about €15.5 million towards its successful development in March 2013.
The launch of the KAZA is now a benchmark for other countries in the basin and the rest of southern Africa to emulate in a bid to deepen integration and promote development in the region.
The tourism authorities of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia reached an agreement in 2009 to establish the ZIMOZA TFCA.
Other proposed transfrontier parks in the Zambezi basin are the Liuwa Plains-Mussuma TFCA involving Angola and Zambia, and the Selous-Niassa TFCA involving Mozambique and Tanzania.
The Liuwa Plains-Mussuma TFCA is home to the largest migratory population of blue wildebeest in the miombo ecosystem in Africa.
Every year massive herds of blue wildebeest migrate from Zambia to Angola and back again, traversing the plains in their thousands and very often mingling with zebra along the way.
The governments of Angola and Zambia are working towards formalising the TFCA.
The establishment of TFCAs is founded on the SADC ideals articulated in the Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement of 1999, which commits member states to “promote the conservation of shared wildlife resources through the establishment of trans frontier conservation areas”.
The Zambezi River Basin Atlas of the Changing Environment, the first of its kind in the basin and southern Africa, is a collaborative initiative with the objective of providing scientific evidence about changes that are taking place in the natural resources and the environment.
The Atlas was produced for SADC, the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM), and Zambezi River Basin stakeholders, by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) through its environment institute, the I. Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa (IMERCSA) and GRID-Arendal, both collaborating centres of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). sardc.net
