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Marketing of Country's Wildlife Vital
The Herald (Harare)

August 26, 2003

Lovemore Chikova
Harare

THE Fifth World Parks Congress to be held in South Africa early next month will provide Zimbabwe with an opportunity to market its wildlife resources and protected areas.

The country badly needs the platform at international forums to market its wildlife sanctuaries at a time tourist arrivals have been affected by bad publicity.

The congress comes at a time when the country's tourism sector is slowly showing signs of revival and this is the time Government needs more international forums to market it.

The congress will be one of such forums and the authorities have to come up with effective strategies to ensure as many delegates as possible get the right message.

Though the country's tourism is now at the recovery stage, more needs to be done to ensure the country regains faith from tourists.

This means officials must not only concentrate on marketing the country's wildlife at the congress, but must come up with a total package for the tourism industry.

The congress will be attended by influential people in the tourism industry with vast potential to influence tourists in their own countries.

More than 2 000 delegates drawn from international natural resources conservation organisations worldwide are expected to attend the congress.

The delegates will discuss the state of wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas in the world and how communities have benefited from them.

Zimbabwe is one of the leading countries in Southern Africa that depend on wildlife as one of the major attractions for tourists.

This means marketing the country's wildlife must be high on the agenda for the delegation that will represent the country at the congress.

The country has been criticised in the past for failing to come up with proper strategies to market its tourism industry.

But the Fifth World Parks Congress will provide a rare opportunity for it to convince the world that it still has the same beautiful national parks and scenery it used to possess.

Environment and Tourism Minister Cde Francis Nhema says the country's presence at the congress will be vital for its tourism industry.

"Zimbabwe must present its case at the congress as a safe, secure and beautiful country for people to visit because we still have parks that are waiting to be visited," he said.

"Our presence is vital and important to explain to the world the true situation prevailing in the country."

Nhema says the country will present its case on the over-population of elephants in its national parks that are destroying the environment and vegetation at a fast rate.

The country needs to share ideas with others in terms of conservation of wildlife and the management of national parks.

The ballooning elephant population in Zimbabwe is a major threat to the management of its national parks.

Recent surveys revealed that the elephant population has increased to unsustainable levels of more than 89 000 well beyond the country's carrying capacity of about 45 000 in parks estates.

Zimbabwean delegates to the World Parks Congress must be able to state clearly what communities have benefited from the national parks resources near them.

A closer examination of the situation in the country will reveal that communities are far from deriving benefits from national parks and protected areas.

Instead, it has been established that living in wildlife-infested areas has become costly and risk as people get maimed or are killed by wild animals.

In Kanyemba area of Lower Guruve, for example, either elephants or buffaloes attack at least two people every week.

This year alone, more than 10 villagers in the area were trampled to death by elephants, while very little was harvested in the fields as wild animals destroyed the bulk of crops.

"We have resorted to spending sleepless nights guarding our crops, a method that is risky as some people have since been maimed or killed by wild animals," says Mr Edmund Chiradza of Kanyurira Village in the area.

Those who will represent Zimbabwe at the congress must reflect on how people like Mr Chiradza have benefited from wildlife parks.

The World Conservation Union-organised congress will be held under the theme "Benefits Beyond Boarders".

It will be interesting to note its outcome as very few people have indeed benefited from wildlife areas that are adjacent to them.

Communities in Zimbabwe and the whole of Southern Africa have watched helplessly for a long time as outsiders plunder resources next to them.

Research has established that as one moves closer to resource-rich protected areas, the degree of poverty gets sharper.

While neighbouring communities do not have money to engage in big tourism ventures, wealthy city dwellers and foreign-based companies generate millions of dollars annually from tourism businesses they run in and around national parks.

National parks and protected areas are part of the tourist attraction areas in the country that need to be marketed.

The congress, held after every ten years, is aimed at reviewing and learning from protected areas, the gains and setbacks of countries in the past ten years.

Its outcome will be integrated into a broader economic, social and environmental agenda for the next ten years.

The other aim will be to build a more diverse and effective constituency for protected areas to redefine and reinforce their relevance in the 21st century.

The first World Parks Congress was held in Seattle, United States, in 1962 with the subsequent three taking place in Yellowstone, US, in 1972, in Indonesia in 1982 and in Venezuela in 1992.

The congress has become the main global forum for reviewing the status and role of protected areas in conservation and development.

The next congress will again be held in Southern Africa and will coincide with the launch of the vast Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park involving national parks in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique.

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