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DDT
Attempts to
reintroduce the use of this pesticide for controlling the tsetse-fly (which
is common in Zambezi valley lowland areas) have met strong resistance in Zimbabwe.
At a recent workshop hosted by the European Union in Harare, The Zambezi Society,
together with a majority of other stakeholders voted against the use of DDT
in tsetse control operations, favouring other, less environmentally-damaging
controls such as target barriers.
TOURISM
IMPACTS
The effects of rapid development and growing tourism pressure at Victoria
Falls, the Zambezi River's most famous tourist destination, are in danger
of reducing the place to an environmental slum. Lack of sensible planning
and a tendency to ignore aesthetic, wilderness and environmental factors in
the rush for short-term profit, are reducing the quality of the visitor experience.
The inability of the local authority to provide basic sewerage, waste and
water facilities to match the rapid growth of the tourist town in the 1990s
has resulted in a potential environmental disaster - a fact not advertised
in the tourist brochures for this famous World Heritage Site. The Zambezi
Society has lobbied for many years for development in Victoria Falls town
to be halted until a Canadian-funded Master Plan is in place. Work has now
begun on the plan, but a great deal remains to be done to rectify the damage
caused by greed, incompetence and lack of transparency on the part of the
town council and insensitive tourism investors.
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Victoria
Falls
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Vic
Falls rubbish tip
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DAMS
Developing Africa's ever-growing need for electricity has already resulted
in the construction of two major hydro-electric dams on the Zambezi River
- at Kariba and Cahora Bassa. Plans to construct more dams have been on the
drawing board for some time, but have met with strong opposition from environmental
lobby groups, including the Zambezi Society. The Zambezi Society is lobbying
for proper evaluation of other options (e.g. better demand-side management
(energy-conservation), investment in alternative energy generation and regional
power-sharing), and for the development of a soundly-based energy policy for
the region.
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Kariba
dam
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IMPACTS
ON THE ZAMBEZI DELTA
The need for careful basin-wide planning for the Zambezi Basin is most clearly
demonstrated in the little-known, but species-rich Zambezi Delta (where the
Zambezi river meets the Indian Ocean). Without careful planning, ecosystem
disturbance upstream can have disastrous effects on the river delta. The most
visible example of this is the impact of Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams. The
dams, which normally only release limited amounts of water from their hydro-electric
turbines, have resulted in major interference to the natural annual flooding
regime of the river.
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Zambezi
Delta
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Zambezi
Society research shows that as a result, the wetland eco-systems of the
delta have dried out considerably during the last few decades with major
consequences on wetland species such as the Wattled Crane, and the coastal
mangrove. |
On 3rd June 2010, the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme declared Zimbabwe's Middle Zambezi Valley a Biosphere Reserve. This designation is a first for Zimbabwe, and indeed the immediate region - the only other Biosphere Reserves in the Southern African region being in South Africa and Malawi.
Biosphere Reserves are areas designated under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme to serve as places to test different approaches to integrated management of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine resources and biodiversity. Biosphere Reserves are thus sites for experimenting with and learning about sustainable development.
Zimbabwe's new Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve stretches over approximately 40,000 sq. km in the Zambezi valley (see white overlay on map). It includes riverine and terrestrial ecosystems unique to the subcontinent, one of its largest man-made reservoirs, Lake Kariba, and two core National Park areas: the Matusadona National Park on the Lake Kariba's southern shores, and Mana Pools National Park, already a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Controlled safari sport hunting in parts of the buffer zone around these core areas, provides employment for hundreds of people. The area also comprises human settlements, notably the town of Kariba, which depends largely on fishing in Lake Kariba for protein and income. The fishery of the Freshwater Sardine or Kapenta, with an annual output of about 40,000 tonnes estimated at a value of US$40 million, rivals major lake fisheries in the region.
Zimbabwe's designation was announced along with 12 other new Biosphere Reserve sites and five extensions in 15 different countries. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) now numbers 564 sites in 109 countries.
Sadly, the new Biosphere Reserve (like the Mana/Sapi/Chewore World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO in 1984), does not include Zambia's side of the Zambezi Valley. The Zambezi Society urges the relevant authorities in Zambia to help safeguard the future of valuable Zambezi biodiversity by making similar applications to the United Nations body on their side of the Zambezi River.
