Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube in LIVINGSTONE, Zambia
Tourism Ministers in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza TFCA) have signed a pledge making a commitment to collectively market tourism in the five countries.
Dubbed the Kavango Zambezi Rivers of Life Tourism Destination Brand, the initiative seeks to make Kaza a well-known and valued tourism destination that is jointly promoted by all tourism operators in the five-nation bloc and and appreciated by all stakeholders public and private.
With the brand that should be collectively marketed globally, there shall be no competition against each other in Kaza with regards to tourism and conservation management and member states-Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe will work together to make the region one tourism destination.
Zambia Tourism Minister Rodney Sikumba who is the Kaza coordinating chair, Barbara Rwodzi, the Zimbabwe Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Marcio De Jesus Lopes Daniel (Tourism Angola), Nnaniki Wilhemina Makwinja (Environment and Tourism in Botswana), and Pohamba Shifeta who is Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in Namibia, signed the pledge on the sidelines of the ongoing 2024 Kaza Heads of State Summit in Livingstone Zambia.
They were joined by Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister Dr Sithembiso Nyoni and the pledge signing ceremony where all Ministers said this was a culmination of collaboration and a milestone achievement that speaks to regional integration.
The KAZA TFCA is a conservation area with a total of 520,000 km2 across five Southern African countries.
About 70 percent of the land is under conservation, with 103 wildlife management areas, 85 forest reserves and three world heritage sites.
The member states signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2006 resulting in the Kaza Treaty in 2011 with the aim of creating one destination.
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