The target beneficiaries of the KAZA TFCA are local communities, and public and private stakeholders in the wildlife and tourism sectors. From this joint venture, the five partner countries want to achieve sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of resident communities, better protection of the region’s biological diversity, establishment of a premier African tourism destination, and the building of sufficient capacity for the continued management of the region’s wildlife and tourism resources.
The five governments have shown their commitment and enthusiasm in developing and opening up the cross-border movement not only of people through the KAZA Visa but also of wildlife. The Zimbabwean delegation will be led by Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira, who has shown a high level of comprehension of the issues of conservation of wildlife and tourism.
It is imperative to note that by adopting such a unified approach, KAZA TFCA’s many stakeholders have the best chance of adapting to climate change, of linking protected areas to sustainable socio-economic development, and of addressing the many challenges posed by incompatible land use and human encroachment into conservation zones.
This is why the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) recognises the importance of KAZA TFCA’s global relevance of trans-frontier conservation areas, and their ability to promote and maintain large-scale ecological processes. The region is aware that it cannot talk about tourism without wildlife hence the need to protect the animals for sustainable use. There is no doubt that, as the largest of its kind, the KAZA TFCA is an extraordinary example of international conservation cooperation.
The region’s Trans-frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) have won worldwide admiration in both the conservation and tourism fraternities and the hosting of such meetings is a major boost for the country’s wildlife conservation efforts and tourism.
By creating larger connected areas, TFCAs enable wildlife to move seasonally and make better use of a variety of habitats. They also help wildlife to adapt to climate change, enabling movement away from climate-stressed areas. This is particularly important in southern Africa where climate change may lead not only to drier conditions but also to changes in precipitation patterns.
The KAZA TFCA is situated in the Okavango and Zambezi river basins where the borders of the five countries converge and, is one of eighteen (18) TFCAs of the Southern African Development Community. Covering nearly 520 000 square kilometres, the KAZA TFCA is the largest trans-frontier conservation area in the world.
The area comprises 20 National Parks, 85 Forest Reserves, 22 Conservancies, 11 Sanctuaries, 103 Wildlife Management Areas and 11 Game Management Areas. This gives a total of 371 394 square kilometres under some form of wildlife management, leaving 148 520 square kilometres for agricultural use including rangeland management.
The conservation area is enormous, larger than Germany and Austria combined and nearly twice as large as the United Kingdom.
The KAZA TFCA’s total population is estimated at 2 677 086, giving an overall population density of 5,15 people per square kilometre, with the majority of people living in the 29 percent of land that is not protected for wildlife. In the last two decades, population growth has tended to be high, averaging two percent per annum and, this has given rise to human encroachment and increased human-wildlife conflict especially where the unprotected land borders protected land.
A 2014 livelihood baseline survey highlights the extent to which communities derive their livelihoods from the immediate external environment. However, it also highlights that this environment is affected by trends, shocks and seasonality that can lead to the destruction of assets both directly and indirectly. The most common threats to livelihood assets are human-wildlife conflict, human health, animal health, floods and droughts, as well as variable rainfall.
There has been a general trend of growth in international arrivals to KAZA TFCA countries since 1995. This is due in part to the three World Heritage Sites that are found within the KAZA TFCA – Mosi-Oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls, the Tsodilo Hills and the Okavango Delta. KAZA TFCA also has over 620 other sites that have been recorded and mapped, including monuments, archaeological, historical, religious and anthropological areas of interest.
Connectivity within the TFCA will be crucial to increase tourist arrivals and Minister Mupfumira has been engaging players in the industry to ensure that more tourists visit the region.
At a macro level, the KAZA TFCA and its partner countries are signatories to the 1999 SADC Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement, and the 1997 SADC Wildlife Policy and Development Strategy, as well as a great many other protocols and conventions.
KAZA TFCA also needs to deal with harmonisation of management and conservation of wildlife in the region, because tourism within the region is wildlife-based and that important resource needs to be taken care of. The creation of trans-frontier conservation areas in general and in Southern Africa in particular, is an initiative that has won worldwide admiration in both the conservation and tourism fraternities.
Establishment of the KAZA TFCA dates back to May 29 2003 when tourism ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe held a meeting in Luanda, Angola and agreed in principle to establish a major new TFCA in the Okavango and Upper Zambezi River Basins. The emphasis was to be on conservation and tourism development. In July 2003, at Katima Mulilo, Namibia, the Ministers defined key elements of the KAZA TFCA programme.
Sadc’s TFCA programme provides the vision upon which all other regional TFCAs are anchored. This vision is to be ‘a model of community centred, regionally integrated and sustainably managed network of world class trans-frontier conservation areas’.
In making the commitment to pursue the establishment of the KAZA TFCA, the five partner countries recognised a suite of benefits that will accrue to each country and to the region as a whole. The benefits include a significant enhancement of socio-economic development associated with nature-based tourism, the promotion of a culture of peace and regional cooperation, and the linking of fragmented habitats to enhance the conservation of biological diversity.
The KAZA TFCA is also a climate change compatible initiative in the sense that connectivity between conservation areas enables both animals and plants to cope with climate change through movement. In Southern Africa, climate change may lead not only to drier conditions but precipitation patterns could also change and affect the distribution of plants and animals, both spatially and temporally. This year has not been a good year for Zimbabwe and already the authority is pumping water for animals in Hwange.
