Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park

The Mosi-O-Tunya National Park is a shared resource – it is shared between the animals and the tourism industry. National Parks are by definition an area of land set aside for animals; humans are merely visitors. But in today’s world where money rules, we have to come to some compromise with the animals that inhabit our National Parks, because, somehow, they have to pay their way.

The Mosi-O-Tunya National Park is the smallest park in Zambia, and, as far as I know, earns more for ZAWA coffers than any of the other 18 National Parks. Because the Park is so small it is very sensitive to change. We all remember the drought years recently when the animals were all dying of starvation. ZAWA, in order to alleviate this situation, agreed to extend the old Zoological section to cover the whole of the Park and, hence, we now see the second attempt to fence the Park in its entirety. This extension is meant to give the animals more area on which to feed.

If we now try to allocate much of this land for tourist development, one wonders whether we are defeating the object of the extension. Not only are we to see many more lodges within the park but we will also have the necessary infrastructure to support these developments – roads, car parks, etc. And, of course, so many more people. With the Legacy Development, we will also have a golf course. Are we are trying too hard to make money out of our animals … in their park.

When there is so much land available outside the Park, one can only wonder why Legacy have decided to choose the park environment for their development. Their expenses will be so much higher within the park than a piece of land around Livingstone, but outside the National Park. One can only assume that it is the proximity to the Falls that is the attraction; it cannot be the environment as they will have to destroy it to construct their golf course.

Sun International held many meetings with local residents prior to their development. They showed plans of their development to everyone. They allocated money for an archaeological dig of the area to map out ancient sites and to collect whatever Stone Age tools they could find. The plans for the Legacy development are not even available for viewing in Livingstone. Also, the Legacy site needs even more attention as it has never been a hotel site before. The tree and bird studies that have been done by the WECSZ show that there are unique features in the area. We also need other studies, especially archaeological ones to make sure that cultural heritage is not lost.

I think we should tread very carefully while all the preliminary research has been done. We do not want to destroy a whole tract of the National Park and then find that we have made a mistake. It is very easy to destroy our natural heritage and almost impossible to get back. And, as the Park belongs to the animals, maybe we should put them first.

Gill Staden