Strengthening Lower Zambezi National Park
In AWF’s Zambezi Heartland, as part of the strategic intervention to secure land for conservation, AWF has prioritized strengthening Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA)’s planning efforts and infrastructure developments in Lower Zambezi National Park. AWF’s first milestone of reviewing and updating the existing General Management Plan (GMP) was started in late 2004 and a complete draft delivered in March 2006, and now awaits ratification by ZAWA’s Board of Trustees.
In the meantime, the GMP provisions are now available as a blueprint to guide all conservation interventions in this biologically diverse national park. The plan provides guidelines for research and resource monitoring interventions, infrastructure needs in terms of roads, staff houses and office space, and a sustainable tourism plan that will safeguard the park from environmental degradation. An estimated budget of $1,700,000 is required to implement all the interventions that will see the park operate on a sound environmental footing for the next 10 years.
In moving forward, AWF is now looking at securing start up funds to build a three bed-roomed ranger house, an office block, upgrade the Chongwe entry gate, construct a permanent revenue collection base at the park airstrip, map and put signage on the major road network.
These visible infrastructural developments should see AWF and its wildlife authority partner uplift the face of this park that neighbors the Mana Pools World Heritage Site, thereby providing a firm base for launching the Mana-Lower Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) in this landscape.
