Exchange of Conservation Tips Benefits African Nations

by Emmanuel Koro

A Kenyan delegation of policy makers and representatives from rural communities and NGOs recently completed a whirlwind tour of Southern Africa. The Kenyans returned to their country with a greater knowledge of sustainable development projects in the region and information on how to replicate the successes in their nation.

The Kenyan delegation visited Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Projects in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. They interviewed communities implementing CBNRM Projects and also met with policy makers, community and NGO representatives from the three Southern African nations.

"Our purpose to come to the Southern Africa is to come and learn," said George Kaniri, Kenyan Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism. "Our visit is at the right time because we are in the process of trying to overhaul our Wildlife Management and Conservation Act and we believe that when we embark on that process we will share the experiences that we would have learnt from the Southern African region. We know that they have done well - better than us - and we want to learn from them."

The visit by the Kenyan delegation emphasized Africa's timely entry into a new conservation era, which hopes to unite African countries exploring diverse conservation and development approaches. African countries obviously have different conservation problems and also different approaches towards solving these issues. There are some areas, however, where their wildlife management dilemmas overlap, creating the need for African countries to learn from one another how they are tackling common problems.

Similar exchange visits between African countries are increasingly becoming an effective approach to addressing challenges in the continent. In 2002, for example, a delegation from West Africa visited Southern Africa to learn how the region was addressing their conservation and development problems.

For the past 10 years, Southern African countries have been successfully implementing initiatives that promote sustainable utilization of natural resources in rural areas. Sustainable utilization of natural resources is popularly referred to as CBNRM.

Through this conservation and development approach, Southern African countries have demonstrated that if local communities are given sustainable user and management rights over their natural resources, they will be motivated to accept the costs of living alongside wildlife and jealously protect it from poachers.

"Conservation in Southern Africa has demonstrated its economic potential on both public and private land," said Dr. Harrison Kojwang, regional representative of WWF's Southern African Regional Program Office. "We can improve poverty alleviation through wildlife management which need not only be viable within fences of national parks. We can do that ourselves."

Dr. Kojwang cited Namibia's Torra Conservancy as an example of how sustainable use concept is helping to improve the growth of wildlife population. There have been tremendous increases in animal population in northwest Namibia outside protected areas.

"It is very clear that through the responsible management of these areas, these communities are managing their wildlife on their own," said Dr. Kojwang. "This is just an indicator of what has happened in one particular area."

In Botswana, the Kenyan delegation met with communities in the Chobe Enclave and also visited Namibian CBNRM projects in Mayuni Conservancy and Zimbabwe's Hwange CAMPFIRE Community.

Dr. Rutina, a senior officer for Botswana's Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, explained to the Kenyan delegation how Botswana, along with other Southern African countries were facing challenges to manage an overabundant elephant population.

"The wildlife biomass is increasing," said Dr. Rutina. "The elephant is transforming the vegetation and that transformation is affecting many species. That's why we have some of the species populations going down, like herbivore grazers in the Chobe River."

Pelonomi Venson, Botswana's Minister of Environment and Tourism, said she was convinced that the Kenyans' visit to Southern Africa would help promote sustainable use of wildlife in Africa.

"It's going to be a great moment when we next meet with other countries that we can speak on a common ground on issues that we would have had an opportunity to share with you," she said while addressing the Kenyan delegation in Sankuyo, a CBNRM Community in Botswana.

After the exchange visits, the West African and Kenyan delegations and the Southern Africans learned that - although their conservation policies and approaches might have differed - their interests in wildlife and natural resources management and the need to alleviate poverty through promotion of development in rural Africa brought them together. (WRI Features, 720 words)