Nyambe stresses the importance of transfortier conservation areas

With more than 20 years working in the conservation sector Dr. Nyambe Nyambe started his career in the mid-1990s as a wetlands officer and is currently the executive director of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area Secretariat (KAZA TFCA), a position he has held since mid-2018.

Nyambe said that the importance of the KAZA TFCA, being the largest land-based such area in the world measuring approximately 520 000 square kilometre and representing about 60% of all the TFCAs in the SADC region, is in the combination of the scale of various factors.

These are the scale of ambition and the forward-looking vision anchored on the Treaty committing the five partner states to working together in addressing common challenges and risks while leveraging the opportunities presented by the rich natural and cultural heritage resources in the landscape.

KAZA is situated in the Kavango and Zambezi river basins where the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge. It includes 36 proclaimed protected areas such as national parks, game reserves, forest reserves, community conservancies and game/wildlife management areas.

Nyambe said that there have been several projects developed and implemented over the years of which the establishment and ongoing development of the TFCA is the primary project itself.

“Within the scope of KAZA’s establishment and development, several other projects have been developed including, but not limited to the KAZA UNIVISA – an

initiative aimed at promoting ease of travel for tourists.”

He said that several foundational planning projects have also been established which generated the countries’ integrated development plans and the Master Integrated development plan, the detailed planning and implementation of priority projects in the Wildlife Dispersal Areas, the KAZA Elephant Survey and the KAZA tourism marketing and brand development.

In addition, various projects targeted at communities livelihoods initiatives have been done such as sustainable agriculture, human wildlife conflict, water provision, and COVID

emergency relief and protected areas, law enforcement, capacity building, park

infrastructure, and species protection.

Nyambe said there still is a lot to look forward to.

“An urgent need exists to implement recommendations from various strategic interventions such as the KAZA Elephant Survey, and the activation of the KAZA tourism destination brand which was launched at the KAZA Summit.”

He said that other priorities include the ease of movement of tourists through better infrastructure, the KAZA UNIVISA and interventions, integrated land use planning, securing of wildlife dispersal areas and securing of wildlife movement corridors, combatting poaching, reducing human wildlife conflict and interventions that will secure, diversify and improve

community livelihoods.

KAZA has been involved with destination marketing and regional tourism development since its inception following the signing of the Treaty in

August 2011.

Nyambe said that momentum has grown in recent years with the development of the destination brand and focused destination marketing with the support of

international experts and with generous co-financing from Germany.

He stressed that TFCAs are an important mechanism for alignment with regional priorities, advancing regional cooperation biodiversity conservation and tourism

development twin strategies for enhanced, inclusive and community development, especially in rural areas.

“TFCAs are key in enhancing transboundary collaboration, sustainable management and use of natural resources, community participation, human-

wildlife conflict mitigation and the development of wildlife-based economies such as eco-tourism.”

He said that they are strategically positioned to foster integrated transboundary landscape approaches, ensure harmonisation of policies and strategies, as well as delivery

of collective action at scale, the latter being a function of the nearly 1 million square kilometres they cover.

Nyambe however said that TFCAs in and by themselves cannot be transformative although their founding existence seeks to do just that.

“To accomplish their visions, goals and objectives and be truly transformational, their development trajectory must strongly embrace imperatives to deliver impact at scale. Impacts for people, biodiversity and tourism are a pipe dream without strong and functional partnerships.”

He said that collaboration is key, and TFCAs should embrace partnerships that can deliver impactful results at scale for people, biodiversity and tourism.

Nyambe has held other positions such as Programme Director (Environment and Development), Centre for Environment and Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Project Executant, Zambezi-Chobe Fisheries Project, Namibia Nature Foundation. He also worked for WWF Zambia where he held different positions - Wetlands Officer, Project Coordinator, Conservation Manager and Country Director.