SADC Transfrontier Conservation Area member states called to critically conserve wildlife

SADC Executive Secretary, Elias Mpedi Magosi

* The environment is currently facing serious change of environmental issues such as poaching, which is negatively affecting member states to embrace wildlife conservation

* Government Ministers urged to work towards conserving the environment and wildlife rather than perusing for assertion of laws and signing of documents by Presidents that they fail to refer to and uphold

By Mary Makhiringa, MANA in Harare, Zimbabwe

Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, Elias Mpedi Magosi has called upon all Southern African Development Community (SADC) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCAs) to work towards conserving wildlife despite numerous challenges that the region is facing.

Magosi said the environment is currently facing serious change of environmental issues such as poaching, which is negatively affecting member states to embrace wildlife conservation.

He made the remarks yesterday during the SADC TFCA government ministers of environment, natural resources and tourism in Harare, Zimbabwe where Malawi Minister of Tourism, Vera Kamtukule is in attendance. The Ministerial meeting comes ahead of the SADC TFCAs Heads of State Summit slated for tomorrow, May 23.

The SADC TFCA programme is driven by several key factors with member states benefits such as regional integration and cooperation, biodiversity conservation, social economic development and peace and stability, among others issues.

“We have come a long way,” Magosi said. “Today, we are saying we have been existing in this wildlife conservation business for the past 25 years.

“Let me urge you, honourable ministers, to work towards conserving the environment and wildlife rather than perusing for assertion of laws and signing of documents by our Presidents that we fail to refer to and uphold.”

Zimbabwe’s Minister of environment, climate change & wildlife, Evelyn Ndlovu said tourism is one of the promising ventures in job creation: “We need to use this platform to enhance coordination and we must move from dialogue to delivery to ensure that resolutions made here translate into tangible outcomes for our people in the ecosystems.”

Germany Ambassador to Zimbambwe, Udo Volz pledged his government’s commitment towards SADC TFCAs, saying: “Powerful aspects of the TFCAs is the ability to generate sustainable development of the communities, sustainable agriculture community driven conservation projects, thereby creating more jobs which will boost the local communities.

“Because of all these, as EU, we made a conscious choice together with Germany; and since last year we allocated €33 million and US$36 million to support TFCAs and more is coming.”

The Ambassador, therefore, asked member states to deepen commitments by increasing protection of the wildlife and allocating more resources to strengthen government structures.

The Summit is being held under the theme; ‘SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas 25 years of cooperation for regional Integration and Sustainable Development’.

In an interview, Malawi Minister of Tourism, Kamtukule said the SADC TFCA has agreed to give back to communities surrounding wildlife protected areas.

Kamtukule emphasised that it is important for member states to strive to give back to communities surrounding protected areas as they are the first line defence — hence the need to involve them if the battle in accelerating wildlife development and tourism is to be won.

“Natural resources contribute to tourism development of a country,” she said. “We would like to see wildlife contributing to the growth, development and livelihoods of the people surrounding protected areas.

“You might be aware that we have a lot of transfrontier conservation areas between Malawi and Zambia, Angola, Tanzania and Mozambique — and all the countries that are neighbouring in protected areas are here to discuss natural resources management.”

Kamtukule further said Malawi is going forward as far as tourism is concerned such that the number of visitors coming is increasing: “Malawi has now succeeded to recover fully from the effects of CoVID-19, which prohibited tourists from coming so much so that we have surpassed figures.

“We have moved from 936,000 to 198,000 during the CoVID-19 pandemic and now we are over 1.1 million per year which is a full recovery of the industry,” she said, adding that the SADC meeting also gives room for neighbouring countries to agree on same issues so that visitors are given the utmost experience which will increase the number of visitors coming.

Three weeks ago, African Parks — which manages some of Malawi’s national parks and game reserves, announced that they have collected a total revenue of K106 million last year from Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve.

This was disclosed during African Parks’ 18th joint liaison committee meeting held in Nkhotakota District Council chamber, involving District Commissioners (DCs), traditional chiefs, and other stakeholders from Kasungu, Ntchisi, Nkhotakota, and Mzimba districts, which surround the reserve.

Park Manager, David Nangoma said this is attributed to more local and international tourists that are visiting the game reserve since the additional of animal species that were translocated into the reserve.

“Traffic to the reserve increased since we added additional animals, and this has positively increased the turnout of tourists, both local and international,” reported Nangoma.

Also boosted with additional wildlife is Kasungu National Park — a transfrontier conservation area between Malawi and Zambia — through the translocation of 263 elephants and 431 additional wildlife in 2022 from the over-populated Liwonde National Park; done by Malawi’s Department of National Parks & Wildlife in partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).—Edited by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express

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