Progress made with transboundary park

A NUMBER of achievements have been made during Namibia’s term of co-ordinating the development of Africa’s largest transboundary conservation project.

This was said yesterday by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Dr Kalumbi Shangula. The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KaZa-TFCA) is a cross-border conservation project between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which includes 36 national parks, game reserves, communal conservancies and game management areas.Shangula, speaking at a KaZa meeting at Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Region, said during Namibia’s term as project coordinator, the project’s secretariat in Maun, Botswana, was strengthened by recruiting additional staff.’The number of partners who are prepared to fund KaZa has been increased and the profile of KaZa has also gone up,’ said Shangula. The KaZa project is unique in the sense it involves five countries and is the largest trans-boundary conservation initiative in Africa, if not the world. Shangula said the treaty that will formally establish the project is in the final stages and will be signed this year.The conference at Katima Mulilo started with a meeting of technical experts on Monday, followed by a meeting for permanent secretaries responsible for environment and tourism.It will conclude today when the relevant ministers will meet and and the coordinator’s role will be handed over to Zambia for the next two years.