At the recent Legacy scoping meeting in Livingstone, Chief Mukuni made an impassioned plea in support of Legacy and its proposed development in the Park. Such flag waving for the entry of the invading development forces bearing large bags of cash is understandable, but, hang on, is the Chief not a partner of the African Wildlife Foundation's Kazungula Heartlands project - in fact the patron of the AWF created Mukuni Trust which has been tasked with its delivery in the Mosi-oa-Tunya area? Of course, such chiefly cerebral felicity, whereby two contradictory views can be held simultaneously, is not unusual among chiefs - as I and the community continue to discover in our troublesome relations with Senior Chief Luembe, my co-director of the Luembe Conservancy Trust; but where is the AWF in all of this? Even though Mosi-oa-Tunya is very much at the core of their programme, they - like the World Bank SEED programme, appear to have gone underground. Someone has gone to sleep on the AWF watch, a fine organization, but one now in danger of losing credibility. When my friend, John Heminway, was the chairman, they called themselves the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation. Perhaps it is time to bring back the leadership part.
Ian Manning
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