In December 2006, the ministers of environment and tourism of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe launched the Kavango-Zambesi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza TFCA). It spans an area of nearly the size of Italy and includes 36 national parks and game reserves.

The main objectives are to join fragmented wildlife habitats, to open up corridors for transfrontier wildlife migration and to promote improved livelihoods of the rural communities by promoting tourism activities like lodging, hunting, ranging, etc. The TFCA concept also envisages partnerships between rural communities and the private sector in the conservation of natural resources, tourism development and timber utilisation. Conservation and tourism are therefore seen as the vehicle for socio-economic development of the region.

Alan Sparrow
Coordinator
Peace Parks Foundation
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
sparrow.alan@gmail.com