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

Travel Expo 2010

March 25 saw the launch of the Zambia International Travel Expo 2010 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre.

The event was flagged off by a breakfast event that was graced by a high powered delegation of government and private sector officials which included two Cabinet Ministers and two Deputy Ministers.

The main conference hall in the new wing was filled with invited guests that were treated to some shows on Zambian tourism punctuated by the usual speech making plus dances and songs.

One could not help thinking that if the rich attendance at this launch comprised of potential customers, and if the venue was Cape Town, or Frankfurt, or Paris, or New York, the immediate response would be a flood of inquiries and bookings for ‘Destination Zambia’.

The reality was that the hall was packed with tour operators, lodge owners, hoteliers, car hire company owners, government officials, organizers, and very few people that would actually make the trip to the many tourist destinations in Zambia.

The Expo may have been designed particularly for the purposes of networking amongst the players in the tourism and travel sector, which includes the private sector, government and members of the public.

The opportunities to directly sell packages and options for travel and tourism may have been the consolation side effects of such a large gathering of investors in the sector.

The 150 plus exhibitors made an impressive show and this years Expo outdid itself when compared to the just under 100 participants that exhibited last year.

After some casual discussions with many of the exhibitors, the question of ‘how does Zambia stand to benefit from the upcoming 2010 World Cup?’ soon came up. The common response from the exhibitors was that no deliberate strategy is in place and each investor has to make a private plan to try to bring business to their companies during the forthcoming football months of June and July.

Some airlines have put in place strategies to acquire more aircraft to add more routes to their current flight schedules, and yet other airlines were considering increasing the frequency of flight between Zambia and South Africa, or introducing larger capacity aircraft to service the current flight schedules thereby increasing the passenger traffic during the World Cup 2010.

These are impressive ideas and initiatives but it is plain to see that there is no national strategy on the drawing board and it is up to each business to develop their own independent programs. One cannot expect to see too much success with an individualistic, haphazard, and uncoordinated approach to exploiting the opportunities for both travel and tourism during the World Cup this year.

It was however, refreshing to see such boisterous looking faces that have hope and expectations stamped on their smiles, even though deep down these faces acknowledge that the stream of tourists expected to come to Zambia will not happen by accident or default. Any appreciable increase in tourism this year will only happen by strategic design and meticulous implementation.

Tourism is not a necessity to human well being as compared to water, food, and sleep. Tourism is a luxury that requires to be planned for, budgeted for, and must be an attractive and hassle free experience.

So, we may want to pause for a moment and ask ourselves: Did last week’s International Travel Expo 2010 really help to launch the country into the World Cup 2010 spirit? What can we do to complement and supplement this effort?

One obvious challenge for Zambian tourism in respect to the World Cup is that there has been very little dialogue within the travel and tourism sector on what the opportunities are, and how they can be exploited by the various investors in the sector.

For example, have we had a stakeholders meeting to help us to understand how a World Cup event is run in the preparatory stages, during the actual games, and after the event? Do we appreciate the pattern of expenditure and time management of visitors to a World Cup event? On average how many games does a person commit themselves to watch live in the stadium? What do World Cup visitors do in-between attending chosen games? How do World Cup participating teams use up their time before, during, and after the tournament? Is there a particular way that players relax and recover after a game?

These are just a few of many questions that one may want to ask and interrogate. It is the answers to these questions that make the basis for a strategy to benefit from this years World Cup event.

The answers will input into how many flights need to be put in place between Lusaka and Johannesburg, or Lusaka and Livingstone. The answers will assist Zambia to decide on how a visitor can obtain a visa to Zambia and at what cost. The answers will prepare the Zambian travel and tourism companies to cater for the anticipated influx of new visitors to the country. The answers will challenge the banking industry to consider the installation of Point Of Sale units in lodges, guest houses, travel agencies, and popular tourist attractions. The answers will drive the airlines to consider their air fares into Zambia from South Africa and the region so that more tourists can be attracted to make a detour from the World Cup and visit the Mosi-O-Tunya and other wonders in Zambia. The answers will provoke the private sector to adjust prices of packages and services offered, to levels that would persuade visitors to the sub continent to stop over in Zambia.

It may be this unfinished business that puts the smiles on private sector faces. The smiles on private sector faces may not necessarily be ones that are generated by good strategy and investment, but that of blind hope, unfounded expectations, and of prayer that something will happen to tilt the scales in our favour.

Published 30 March 2010