Peace Parks

Peace Parks or TransFrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) are established through a network of protected areas that link ecosystems across international borders.

Peace Parks are designed for the conservation of wildlife, the development of human resources therein, supporting sustainable economic development, facilitation of biodiversity, and the promotion of peace and stability.

Peace Parks have been spearheaded by the Peace Park Foundation in Stellenbosch South Africa which has many activities in South Africa and covers huge tracts of land in the Southern African region.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement of 1999 defines a TransFrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) as "the area or component of a large ecological region that straddles the boundaries of two or more countries, encompassing one or more protected areas as well as multiple resource use areas". This Protocol compels SADC Member States to promote the conservation of shared wildlife resources through the establishment of TransFrontier Conservation Areas.

Peace Parks have been established across the Southern African region covering several countries including Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. Amongst other goals, Peace Parks are about co-existence between humans and nature and stimulating local jobs creation through developing nature conservation as a land use option.

The Chobe National Park and Kafue National Park Peace Park develops a corridor for elephants to roam freely from Botswana into Zambia thereby crossing international borders unhindered.

Management of Peace Parks provides for the anti poaching units to track down subsistence poachers in hot pursuit across the international borders that are within the Peace Park demarcations. This mechanism allows for a more robust anti poaching drive that is not frustrated by sovereign jurisdiction.

Peace Parks between Zambia and Malawi cover over 35,000 square kilometres and the total area covered by Peace Parks within Zambia is in the order of about 300,000 square kilometres.

Peace Parks in Zambia therefore account for almost 40 percent of the total land mass that constitutes the entire country. This is probably the biggest alienation of land to a specific purpose ever carried out in the country.

There are concerns across the globe about flora, fauna, and wildlife that faces near extinction. In the animal kingdom these include the Blue Whale in the Pacific Ocean, the Giant Panda of Southern China, the Silverback Gorilla of North Eastern Congo and Rwanda, the Tigers of the Sunderbans in North Eastern India and Bangladesh, and of course, the Rhino of Southern and East Africa.

It must be stated that there is another species of animal that is often ignored in the conservation equation – the human being.

Too often the spotlight is on the animals that roam our forests and jungles with very little attention given to the people that share the habitat with these animals.

Have we taken time to understand the drive that promotes subsistence poaching? What conflicts are we designing when we allow elephants to freely roam across the country and trample peasant farmer crops and dwellings? How can rural people play a significant role in supporting conservation? How can animal conservation be profitable to the local people?

These questions and many others are never truly answered. Policy makers and project designers usually use the elite and the law to make their case. The well to do are very conservation conscious in their privileged comfort zones. The law is easily drawn up to force the vulnerable and disregarded to survive with even less than they had yesterday.

It is no wonder that nature is often disregarded when rural people scour the rivers and country side in search of gold, emeralds, and other precious stones that will guarantee them a hefty bounty while no current conservation program offers any such promises.

There is a case to argue that the implementation of the Peace Park program is not as equitable as the blueprints suggest. There is need to invest in the well being of the local people within the environment more so than the current investment that is being done in protecting and conserving the animals. This dynamic is true for Zambia as it is for the Southern African region, and it is the same dynamic that has continued to threaten the existence of the Tiger, Panda, Gorilla and Blue Whale.

There are clearly some international challenges that have not been addressed in developing the conservation programs globally.

The Peace Park initiative looks good on the outside and has some noble goals in respect to conservation for everything except humans themselves. The alienation of 300,000 square kilometres is not such a big issue if the Peace Parks are not exclusively fashioned and managed with only the welfare of the animals as top priority.

It will be wise to reflect on the benchmarks that Peace Parks have set for themselves which pay special attention to the role and welfare of humans.

The statistics may need to be re-written. A study may have to be done to determine whether the traditional authorities have oversight of the majority of Land in Zambia, or could it possibly be the Peace Parks and their management teams?

Published 4 May 2010