adminKAZA is made up of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Botswana.Germany’s State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development Mr Hans Jurgen Beerfeltz presented the US$20 million cheque to ministers of tourism from the respective countries at a ceremony held during the International Tourism Bourse in Berlin.
The funding from the German government will enable Zimbabwe to expeditiously upgrade infrastructure in the area falling under the conservancy.
It is potentially the world’s largest conservation area spanning the five countries, largely centring around Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls, Botswana’s Chobe and Namibia’s Caprivi Strip.
Mr Beerfeltz said that the German federal government was not only working with governments of countries that constitute the KAZA, but other organisations that promote sustainable wildlife management and eco-tourism.
“We are not only working with the states and private tourism industry, but we are also working with relevant non-governmental organisations such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature and others in direct contact with people.
“The KAZA TFCA creates jobs for local people and local communities,” said Mr Beerfeltz.
In an interview with Herald Business after the handover ceremony, Tourism and Hospitality Industry permanent secretary Mrs Margaret Sangarwe said the funding would enable Zimbabwe to address those issues that it could not attend to during the decade of economic instability.
“There has been a number of developments since the KAZA was started (in 2003), unfortunately there have not been much development on the Zimbabwe side because of the difficulties we had with sanctions.
“Fortunately, the Zimbabwean side is the most advanced because there is Victoria Falls under KAZA and already there are tourism developments (from own resources) on the Zimbabwean side but there has not been much development in terms of infrastructure in the other KAZA countries,” said Ms Sangarwe.
As such, Mrs Sangarwe said, other countries in the KAZA region have over the years been using funding provided by the German federal government to develop infrastructure, integrated tourism plans and policies to harmonise natural resources management in the whole KAZA region.
This comes after Zimbabwe last November took over chairmanship of the KAZA.
Zambian Tourism and Arts Minister Sylivia Masebo in November last year handed over the chairmanship to Zimbabwe’s secretary in charge of Environment and Natural Resource Management Ms Florence Nhekairo at Courtyard Hotel, Livingstone.
Accepting the chairmanship, Ms Nhekairo said Zimbabwe would not only live up to the challenge of co-ordinating KAZA TFCA programmes but also build on the momentum and consolidate the gains achieved so far.
The goal is to sustainably manage the ecosystem, its heritage and cultural resources based on best conservation and tourism models for socio-economic well being of communities and other stakeholders in and around the ecological region through harmonisation of policies, practices and strategies.
The conservancy covers some 444 000 square kilometres linking up 14 national parks and nature reserves.
Regional tourism experts contend that KAZA TFCA has the potential to increase tourism in the region by a factor of five.
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