Press Release...
Arlington, VA (PRWeb) March 22, 2007 -- The Nature Conservancy and The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) today announced a partnership to protect and manage the Zambezi River for people and nature alike. The collaboration includes the addition of the Zambezi to the Conservancy's Great Rivers Partnership. The Zambezi winds 1,500 miles through eight countries before emptying into the Indian Ocean and is the lifeblood for much of southern Africa. "More than 42 million people and large and diverse populations of wildlife depend on the Zambezi River for survival," said Steve McCormick, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. "Protecting rivers like the Zambezi is essential to achieving our mission to preserve life on Earth."
Cross-site exchanges and lessons learned from other great rivers should come to bear and contribute to the formulation of an appropriate integrated water resources management strategy that fosters sustainable freshwater conservation. With a generous $12 million grant through Caterpillar Inc.'s foundation, The Nature Conservancy created the Great Rivers Partnership in 2005 to help guide protection of the world's vanishing freshwater supply and transform the way large river systems are preserved and protected. In addition to the Zambezi, the Conservancy's Great Rivers Partnership is working to advance conservation of the Yangtze River in China, the Paraguay and Paraná rivers in Brazil and the Mississippi River in the United States.
The Zambezi is the fourth largest river in Africa. More than 30 million people within the Zambezi River basin depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The Zambezi River system provides people with water for crops as well as fish to eat. One third of the basin's population relies on the river's fish for food. The Zambezi basin supports more than 250 species of fish that are vital to the ecosystem and serve as a key food source, such as the tigerfish and the great Vundu catfish. Hundreds of bird species reside within the basin -- including the snake eagle, African fish eagle and the Marabu stork. Plus, the Zambezi and its tributaries provide habitat for the world's largest herd of elephants, lions, zebras, hippos, African cape buffalo, monkeys, baboons, crocodiles, monitor lizards and black rhinos. But rapid human settlement, incompatible agricultural practices, water pollution, alteration of natural flooding and flow patterns, poaching, unmanaged fire, unsustainable fishing, deforestation, invasive vegetation and the introduction of non-native fish from aquaculture operations, have all taken a toll on the Zambezi's ecological health. "Despite all these threats, the Zambezi remains one of the world's great rivers and it can continue to provide for both people and for nature if we apply the lessons we've learned on other river systems," said Michael Reuter, director of the Conservancy's Great Rivers Partnership. "Rivers must maintain their natural ability to provide clean water, convey floodwaters and vary their flow seasonally so that fish and other aquatic species can migrate. Healthy rivers support all life."
"Maintaining the Zambezi River's role as a functional lifeline from an economic and ecological standpoint is the overall vision for this initiative," said Jimmiel Mandima, Director for AWF's Zambezi Heartland. "Cross-site exchanges and lessons learned from other great rivers should come to bear and contribute to the formulation of an appropriate integrated water resources management strategy that fosters sustainable freshwater conservation."
The African Wildlife Foundation is the only international conservation organization focused exclusively on the African continent. The Conservancy provides technical and financial resources to AWF to help support its African Heartlands Program. Heartlands are vast landscapes in which the African Wildlife Foundation works with stakeholders to balance the needs of people and wildlife. Two of the AWF's eight Heartlands -- the Kazungula Heartland and the Zambezi Heartland -- are located along the Zambezi.
The Conservancy's Great Rivers Partnership and the African Wildlife Foundation will collaborate in supporting the Zambezi River Authority and other stakeholders interested in developing a comprehensive basin-wide assessment of the Zambezi River system. A conservation vision and action plan for the Zambezi River basin that identifies critical ecosystems as well as current and emerging threats to their viability is also planned.
Constituencies will be engaged in developing priority conservation actions, measures and monitoring strategies. In addition, the Conservancy and the AWF will work with communities and the government in Mozambique's Cahora Bassa Reservoir in the Zambezi River Valley to develop a pilot sustainable commercial fishery. The goal of this initiative is to simultaneously improve human livelihoods and protect the long-term viability of the fishery through improved monitoring and resource management. Efforts such as the fishery will support the African Wildlife Foundation and The Nature Conservancy's objective to promote conservation and human well-being in Africa.
"This collaboration will unite the financial, scientific and on-the-ground conservation strengths of The Nature Conservancy with the position and expertise that The African Wildlife Foundation holds in the region," said David Banks, director of the Conservancy's newly-created Africa Program. "Scientists and conservation leaders from both organizations also will be able to exchange information and ideas to help conserve the Zambezi."
Friday, March 23, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
In Zambia, battle over future of Victoria Falls
Development nearby offers needed employment, but could also threaten local wildlife.
By Joseph J. Schatz | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA - For Nalumino Ifunga, a security guard at a quiet campsite and lodge just down the road from Victoria Falls, afternoons often consist of watching vervet monkeys frolic in the trees.
But Mr. Ifunga wonders if those monkeys – and the elephants, hippos, and giraffes that share the woods with them – will stick around after South African hotel developer Legacy Group Holdings opens a controversial new resort next door in Mosi Oa Tuyna National Park, which borders the Falls, Zambia's biggest tourist attraction.
Legacy's plan, which originally included two five-star hotels, a golf course, and 450 villas just a few miles from the falls, sparked a bitter battle late last year between environmentalists, developers, and the Zambian government. It has also posed a dilemma for some local residents, like Ifunga.
"[The hotels] create employment for local people, but on the other hand ... these animals you see here, they will be driven away from their homes," Ifunga noted.
Environmental advocates in this peaceful but stubbornly poor southern African nation say they have staved off the worst after a fierce campaign that persuaded the government to force Legacy to drop the golf course and the villas, while still allowing the group to build the two hotels. But the debate highlighted the uneasy balance being forged in Zambia between the sometimes competing demands of conservation, tourism, poverty reduction, and job creation.
Jobs vs. the environment
"There aren't so many industries offering job opportunities to the people," says Danny Mwango, a senior inspector for environmental-impact assessment at the Environmental Council of Zambia. "This was one big project that was going to offer 1,000 employment opportunities to the people. At the same time, the government is also thinking of bringing development to Zambia and reducing poverty. And then, we're weighing this against environmental and social considerations."
Mosi Oa Tunya park (which means "the smoke that thunders," the ancient local name for the falls) covers 25 square miles along the Zambezi River's final approach to the falls, where it plummets more than 300 feet. The surrounding town of Livingstone – named for David Livingstone, the 19th-century British missionary and explorer who was the first white man to lay eyes on the Falls – has sought to cultivate an image as the "adventure capital of southern Africa," with bungee jumping, white-water rafting, helicopter rides, and a host of other activities for thrill-seekers available at $100 a pop. The town is currently enjoying a boom, partly at the expense of neighboring Zimbabwe, which shares the Falls with Zambia and has lost tourists to Livingstone amid the economic decline and political conflict surrounding President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian rule.
But that won't last forever, says Rennie Mushinge, the development director at Legacy's Zambia branch. Mr. Mushinge argues that having a major new resort is vital to the long-term future of Livingstone as a tourist destination, noting that the town still can't equal the hotel capacity of the Zimbabwean gateway town of Victoria Falls, right across the river.
"Victoria Falls is the biggest asset we have to get tourists into Zambia." says Rennie Mushinge, the development director at Legacy's Zambia branch. "If we don't have adequate bed capacity in Livingstone, how are we going to grow tourism in Zambia?"
Last year, the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) opened up a small slice of the park for tourism development, part of the Zambian government's effort to make tourism a key driver of economic growth. Legacy moved in and negotiated with the Zambian government to secure an even bigger chunk of land.
When environmentalists and civil society groups got wind of the proposed deal, they were incensed, in part because the proposal would threaten an important habitat for the hundreds of elephants that cross the river from Zimbabwe into Zambia each year. They also complained that the extra land had been granted in a secretive fashion, raising questions about the transparency of the environmental review process in Zambia, where the government continues to struggle with bureaucratic corruption, especially in the allocation of land.
Lure of investment
But the promise of jobs and cash from foreign investors is a powerful motivator for citizens and politicians in Zambia, where only about 20 percent of the workforce is formally employed.
Legacy won support from some local residents – and the local chief – who argued that job creation must accompany conservation. The project would "create space for us to find work. It's a very good idea," Victor Mweela, a young taxi driver, says as he waits for customers outside a recently built Livingstone shopping complex catering to affluent tourists. "Maybe we'll find jobs. I don't like to be a taxi driver."
But conservation and civil-society groups called this a dangerously short-term outlook, given Zambia's reliance on its national parks for revenue. After raising their concerns at a contentious public hearing last fall, they used Internet blogs to keep supporters updated and to spread the word internationally.
It worked.
Safari tour operators in Britain threatened to boycott Legacy. The US Environmental Protection Agency wrote to the Zambian government to voice its concerns. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) let it be known that the project would put in jeopardy the World Heritage site status that the Falls and the park currently enjoy.
In December, the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) handed down a compromise decision. Noting that the Legacy proposal would have "far reaching environmental consequences," the ECZ said that the golf course and villas would have to go. Legacy could keep its two hotels, but would be prohibited from putting up animal fencing or building their hotels higher than the treetops.
"It was a huge victory," says Mike Musgrave, a South African-born businessman and president of the Livingstone chapter of the Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia. "It's the biggest environmental campaign ever run in Zambia."
Legacy lost an appeal to the government, and its investment into Livingstone will now drop to $50 million from a planned $260 million, Mr. Mushinge says. "Thanks to our environmental guys," he says with a laugh.
Legacy may buy up private land to expand their site. And rampant development continues to threaten the Falls, international observers say.
Still, Mr. Musgrave says he is encouraged that at least in this instance, policy-makers took the long view and concluded that development – in the name of tourism – might actually drive away tourists.
"We need to keep the Falls in the way that Livingstone saw them," Musgrave says. "That's what tourists come to see."
By Joseph J. Schatz | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA - For Nalumino Ifunga, a security guard at a quiet campsite and lodge just down the road from Victoria Falls, afternoons often consist of watching vervet monkeys frolic in the trees.
But Mr. Ifunga wonders if those monkeys – and the elephants, hippos, and giraffes that share the woods with them – will stick around after South African hotel developer Legacy Group Holdings opens a controversial new resort next door in Mosi Oa Tuyna National Park, which borders the Falls, Zambia's biggest tourist attraction.
Legacy's plan, which originally included two five-star hotels, a golf course, and 450 villas just a few miles from the falls, sparked a bitter battle late last year between environmentalists, developers, and the Zambian government. It has also posed a dilemma for some local residents, like Ifunga.
"[The hotels] create employment for local people, but on the other hand ... these animals you see here, they will be driven away from their homes," Ifunga noted.
Environmental advocates in this peaceful but stubbornly poor southern African nation say they have staved off the worst after a fierce campaign that persuaded the government to force Legacy to drop the golf course and the villas, while still allowing the group to build the two hotels. But the debate highlighted the uneasy balance being forged in Zambia between the sometimes competing demands of conservation, tourism, poverty reduction, and job creation.
Jobs vs. the environment
"There aren't so many industries offering job opportunities to the people," says Danny Mwango, a senior inspector for environmental-impact assessment at the Environmental Council of Zambia. "This was one big project that was going to offer 1,000 employment opportunities to the people. At the same time, the government is also thinking of bringing development to Zambia and reducing poverty. And then, we're weighing this against environmental and social considerations."
Mosi Oa Tunya park (which means "the smoke that thunders," the ancient local name for the falls) covers 25 square miles along the Zambezi River's final approach to the falls, where it plummets more than 300 feet. The surrounding town of Livingstone – named for David Livingstone, the 19th-century British missionary and explorer who was the first white man to lay eyes on the Falls – has sought to cultivate an image as the "adventure capital of southern Africa," with bungee jumping, white-water rafting, helicopter rides, and a host of other activities for thrill-seekers available at $100 a pop. The town is currently enjoying a boom, partly at the expense of neighboring Zimbabwe, which shares the Falls with Zambia and has lost tourists to Livingstone amid the economic decline and political conflict surrounding President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian rule.
But that won't last forever, says Rennie Mushinge, the development director at Legacy's Zambia branch. Mr. Mushinge argues that having a major new resort is vital to the long-term future of Livingstone as a tourist destination, noting that the town still can't equal the hotel capacity of the Zimbabwean gateway town of Victoria Falls, right across the river.
"Victoria Falls is the biggest asset we have to get tourists into Zambia." says Rennie Mushinge, the development director at Legacy's Zambia branch. "If we don't have adequate bed capacity in Livingstone, how are we going to grow tourism in Zambia?"
Last year, the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) opened up a small slice of the park for tourism development, part of the Zambian government's effort to make tourism a key driver of economic growth. Legacy moved in and negotiated with the Zambian government to secure an even bigger chunk of land.
When environmentalists and civil society groups got wind of the proposed deal, they were incensed, in part because the proposal would threaten an important habitat for the hundreds of elephants that cross the river from Zimbabwe into Zambia each year. They also complained that the extra land had been granted in a secretive fashion, raising questions about the transparency of the environmental review process in Zambia, where the government continues to struggle with bureaucratic corruption, especially in the allocation of land.
Lure of investment
But the promise of jobs and cash from foreign investors is a powerful motivator for citizens and politicians in Zambia, where only about 20 percent of the workforce is formally employed.
Legacy won support from some local residents – and the local chief – who argued that job creation must accompany conservation. The project would "create space for us to find work. It's a very good idea," Victor Mweela, a young taxi driver, says as he waits for customers outside a recently built Livingstone shopping complex catering to affluent tourists. "Maybe we'll find jobs. I don't like to be a taxi driver."
But conservation and civil-society groups called this a dangerously short-term outlook, given Zambia's reliance on its national parks for revenue. After raising their concerns at a contentious public hearing last fall, they used Internet blogs to keep supporters updated and to spread the word internationally.
It worked.
Safari tour operators in Britain threatened to boycott Legacy. The US Environmental Protection Agency wrote to the Zambian government to voice its concerns. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) let it be known that the project would put in jeopardy the World Heritage site status that the Falls and the park currently enjoy.
In December, the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) handed down a compromise decision. Noting that the Legacy proposal would have "far reaching environmental consequences," the ECZ said that the golf course and villas would have to go. Legacy could keep its two hotels, but would be prohibited from putting up animal fencing or building their hotels higher than the treetops.
"It was a huge victory," says Mike Musgrave, a South African-born businessman and president of the Livingstone chapter of the Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia. "It's the biggest environmental campaign ever run in Zambia."
Legacy lost an appeal to the government, and its investment into Livingstone will now drop to $50 million from a planned $260 million, Mr. Mushinge says. "Thanks to our environmental guys," he says with a laugh.
Legacy may buy up private land to expand their site. And rampant development continues to threaten the Falls, international observers say.
Still, Mr. Musgrave says he is encouraged that at least in this instance, policy-makers took the long view and concluded that development – in the name of tourism – might actually drive away tourists.
"We need to keep the Falls in the way that Livingstone saw them," Musgrave says. "That's what tourists come to see."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
UNESCO SENDS UNCLEAR MESSAGE..
Ian Sikazwe (any relation to Jacob?) appears to be pleased about a 'compromise' with Legacy. No such compromise exists. The Environmental Council said that Legacy could proceed with the building of the hotels but nothing else. The Chairman of the ZAWA Board told myself and another member of the Natural Resources Consultative Forum that he had instructed the DG of ZAWA to place a moratorium on ALL new developments in the Mosi oa Tunya NP. As for the Southern Province Permanent Secretary, Darius Hakayobe, saying that "Government has already sanctioned this" (Legacy, presumably), and then being reported as saying that, people who were against Legacy Holdings were against government, is an insult to every person living in Zambia - including those in Government.
The Environmental Council is the statutory body empowered to see that there is a balance between ecology and economic development. We support their work; and decry the xenophobia of those who try to make out that we are against Government, against Zambia. It is this kind of vacant outburst which unsettles those who invest here: including myself and scores of Zambians who are entering into smart partnerships for Zambia's economic development. The Victoria Falls Heritage Site, which includes Mosi, is not for sale. UNESCO needs to make this clear, and the PS for Southern Province should support it.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Smoke and broken mirrors in Victoria Falls...
President Mwanawasa of Zambia’s economic advisor, Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane is reported as saying (The Post, Monday March 12, 2007) that development could not be achieved without interference with the environment. This rather general comment on the activities of homo kleptomanias was to prepare us for the visit of a Malaysian delegation who were whipped down to Livingstone to view three 5 hectare sites set aside in the Mosi oa Tunya NP for hotel development.
Mitigation. What be that? Perhaps taking something unpalatable and covering it with something equally unpalatable. Whatever happened to the instructions given by the Chairman of the Zambia Wildlife Authority to his Director General that a moratorium be placed on all proposed developments (including Legacy) for the Mosi oa Tunya Park until such time as the IUCN report was submitted and the necessary meeting held to decide on the future management of the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site as a whole? Did someone tell him to back off and allow for some good old mitigation?
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