Zimbabwe: Don't Turn Victoria Falls Into Concrete Jungle

OPINION, January 24, 2007

THE Victoria Falls is Southern Africa's top tourist destination and there needs to be development near the falls to ensure that tourists are adequately catered for. But it must be emphasised that the day when the whole Falls area becomes a concrete jungle, and where nature takes a back seat to buildings and roads, the tourists will stop coming. After all, they have enough concrete jungles in their home countries, which explains why they travel thousands of kilometres for a glimpse of nature. Let us not forget that the Falls also lie on an international boundary. This means there will always be an element of rivalry between the two countries to see how they can get a fair share, or a little bit more than their neighbour when it comes to tourism dollars. No wonder the experts in both Zimbabwe and Zambia pressed so hard for the Falls to be registered as a World Heritage Site with Unesco.

Once that designation was won, the two countries would be forced to co-operate to retain the status. It is sad that since the day Zimbabwe and Zambia signed up with Unesco, the standards laid down and the requirements for maintaining the status have been ignored on both sides, or at least been very laxly enforced.

A Unesco team has returned, and neither country's planners have escaped the acid pen of the international experts. Of even greater concern was the placing on the back burner of a joint plan. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, everyone agreed it was vital, but no one actually seems to have started drawing it up. Now both countries have six months to do this. It will not be that difficult.

Everyone knows that development close to the Falls now has to be banned and that as much as possible has to be done to the south of Victoria Falls town on the Zimbabwe side and north of Livingstone on the Zambian side. This is what the two national plans already in existence already infer, and all that is really required is amalgamating them. In other words, the area between the existing zones of development must be left alone. At the same time there is need to create clearly demarcated zones of development so as to reduce the burden on the Falls.

Visitors coming to the Falls area can, after all, only spend a limited amount of time gazing at millions of litres of water cascading over a cliff. They want to round off their holiday with game viewing, fishing, boating, whitewater rafting, and having fun. There is no need for much of this activity to be done within sight or even sound of the Falls. Correctly planned, new development can dramatically increase tourism revenue while reducing human pressure on the area near the Falls. But a far larger area needs to be incorporated into the plans for this to be possible.

Both Zambia and Zimbabwe are aware of what is required of them and have both already started applying the brakes. Zimbabwe has suspended all development plans for some islands and Zambia has told a major hotel group that they have to dramatically reduce and modify plans for a new mega hotel. What is now required is a joint team of professionals to put together a sustainable development plan, one that can be extended and modified as time goes on. This plan will formalise and harmonise the existing national plans. It will also help identify which areas can be developed for the benefit of the tourism industry along the common border. Most importantly, the plan should ensure that the great falls remain one of the seven natural wonders of the world, rather than come to look like something in Las Vegas. 

Source: Zimbabwe: Don't Turn Victoria Falls Into Concrete Jungle (The Herald, 24th January 2007)

Statement on the wild elephant capture by Shearwater

Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSPCA)

As our only concern is the welfare of animals and the enforcement of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, ZNSPCA has patiently remained silent in the midst of a barrage of defamatory press releases, whilst at the same time having received letters from Atherstone & Cook, on instruction from Shearwater, threatening to bring charges of malicious prosecution against the Society.

In response to reports of possible cruelty taking place during the capture of 12 wild elephants in Hwange Game Reserve, which was witnessed by visitors to the park, ZNSPCA initiated an investigation.

On 11 January 2007 on a follow-up visit to Victoria Falls to check on the reported improved conditions for the elephants, the ZNSPCA Inspectors were denied access to the elephants. A charge of obstruction has been laid against Shearwater.

In order to be fair and reasonable and in order to give Shearwater time to improve conditions and the opportunity to allow ZNSPCA Inspectors to check on the alleged improved condition of the elephant, although Inspectors are not required to have such permission, we have waited 7 days in order for permission to be granted and have withheld making any statements to the press in this regard at the behest of Shearwater. It is therefore most regrettable that permission has not been granted.

We have heard that there have been apparent improvements in the condition of the elephant and the boma, but our Inspectors are unable to ascertain if this is true.

This is the first instance where our Inspectors have ever been denied access to premises housing wildlife in captivity. It is the duty of SPCA Inspectors to ensure the welfare of any wild animal in captivity.

In addition, Shearwater refers to a report by two veterinarians that was CONFIDENTIAL and not for release to the media. Regrettably Shearwater has breached that confidence and has been selective in quoting from the report.

Many remarks contained in that report clearly indicate that in our opinion cruelty was taking place at the time of report.

Our Inspectors will continue to conduct their duties in this regard without fear or favour, in spite of being subjected to verbal abuse and insults, having their every move monitored and all other efforts to discredit their motives which have been appearing in the media.

Source: Statement on the wild elephant capture by Shearwater (24/01/2007)

More:

Shearwater statement on Hwange elephant capture (24/11/2006)

Outcry over capture of wild elephants (12/11/06)

Elephants sent into Safari Slavery from Zimbabwe’s World Famous Hwange National Park (08/11/06)

Further Reading:  Captive Animal encounters: are they ethical? 


More from this blog: elephant-back safaris 

Zimbabwe: Vic Falls Projects Frozen

The Hearld (Harare), January 23, 2007.

ALL developments near the Victoria Falls have been frozen following international representations that both Zimbabwe and Zambia were flouting international standards.

Victoria Falls came under the spotlight following massive developments in Zambia and the proposed upgrading of several islands on the Zimbabwean side. In 2002 the two countries, who share the Falls, agreed to work together in formulating an integrated plan on how they planned to use the land around the Falls, a World Heritage Site.

"This plan was supposed to have been in place before Zambia had started building a hot air balloon base and a 500-bed lodge. We were also expected to monitor all activities on our side and some developments were overlooked," director-general for the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Dr Morris Mtsambiwa told a media forum at the weekend. He said reports of mismanagement of the falls had led the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to send a team to investigate operations around Victoria Falls. "We were very much concerned because this meant that the tourist attraction could be de-listed from its World Heritage status. This would be a shame to us because we presented this area as deserving such a status. "To try and regain that status, if it happens that we lose it, would actually be almost impossible," Dr Mtsambiwa said. He said the team assessed the situation on the Zimbabwean side where the falls are more spectacular and made several recommendations, which included putting a moratorium on the proposed developments on the islands.

On visiting Zambia the team found a wide range of developments including a colossal lodge, whose construction Zimbabwe had not consented to. Dr Mtsambiwa said the two countries were given an ultimatum to come up with an integrated plan by June this year.

Zimbabwe, which still has to aggressively market this premier tourist destination, has resisted plans by prospective investors to build exclusive hotels opting to preserve the fragile ecosystem around the falls. Despite this, Victoria Falls still attracts more tourists than the downstream Lake Kariba, Mana Pools and Great Zimbabwe.

Victoria Falls, popularly known as "Mosi-wa-Tunya" (the smoke that thunders) in the local vernacular, is often marketed by regional broadcasting channels, including the Tourism and Trade Channel in South Africa and various other foreign-owned websites, at Zimbabwe's expense. 

Source: Vic Falls Projects Frozen (The Herald, 23/01/07)

Victoria Falls 'at risk', UN warns

Victoria Falls, one of the world's greatest natural wonders, may cease to be a World Heritage Site as a result of the chaos in Zimbabwe.

Known locally as Mosi oa Tunya, or "the smoke that thunders", the falls are more than a mile wide and 420ft high. They have been a tourist hotspot since 1905, but Unesco is now considering listing the site as "endangered" because of mismanagement that has allowed the once prosperous resort to deteriorate.

Furthermore, over-zealous Zambian developers are proposing to build 500 chalets in a national park overlooking the falls, prompting warnings that the plan could lead Unesco to remove the site'sWorld Heritage status immediately.

Control of the Victoria Falls, named by the explorer David Livingstone in 1855, is at the centre of a turf war between two government bodies - the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management - both fighting over rights to manage one of the country's last remaining sources of valuable tourist revenue as hyperinflation touches 1,100 per cent.

The Zambezi river, which plunges over the falls, forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Most Western tourists used to stay on the Zimbabwean side, attracted by top-class facilities such as the Victoria Falls and Elephant Hills hotels, but the surrounding decay, and safety fears after the often violent land seizures initiated by President Robert Mugabe, have seen tourist revenues plunge by more than 70 per cent to $98m (£51m) last year from $340m in 1999, before land reforms started.

Unesco is also alarmed by Zambia's efforts to benefit from Zimbabwe's disarray. In a reversal of the traditional position, most foreign visitors now approach the falls from the Zambian side, even though the view is less spectacular. The tourism industry in Zambia is booming, with the number of overseas arrivals doubling between 2003 and 2005, bringing the country much-needed income, and new hotels are springing up near the Zambian town of Livingstone.

Source: Victoria Falls 'at risk', UN warns (07/01/07)