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Friday, 15 December 2006

Concerns mount over World Heritage Site status

Zambia's only listed World Heritage Site is under threat by plans to build a multi-million dollar resort near the world-renowned Victoria Falls, a local environmental organisation is claiming. The government has awarded 220 hectares of land in the 66 sq.km Mosi-O-Tunya National Park at a cost of US$9 million, plus an undisclosed recurring levy, to South Africa's Legacy Group Holdings for development over a 75-year period under a tourism concession programme.


The national park is a World Heritage Site shared with neighbouring Zimbabwe, with the waterfalls as an international tourist drawcard. In the past, Zimbabwe was the main port of call for those wanting to visit Victoria Falls, but Zambia has become the preferred destination as a consequence of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, which has seen annual inflation levels topping 1,000 percent - the highest in the world - with commonplace shortages of fuel, energy and food. "We have benefited so much from the booming tourism here but we may lose out, as UNESCO [United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organisation] has already indicated to us plans of withdrawing the status of Victoria Falls as a World Heritage Site, should the construction of a Legacy hotel be allowed to go on in the park," Nicholas Katanekwa, chair of the Livingstone Tourism Association, told IRIN.

Chairman of Legacy Holdings International Bart Dorrestein said the company would spend about US$260 million on building two hotels, 500 chalets and an 18-hole golf course. The proposed site is six kilometres upriver from Victoria Falls and lies between the Zambezi and Maramba rivers.

Donald Chikumbi, chief executive officer of the Livingstone-based National Heritage and Conservation Commission, said, "We have not received any correspondence from UNESCO to do with the allocation of this land in the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park to Legacy Holdings, but what we have received is a notice letter from UNESCO, informing us that a delegation of officials from UNESCO and the IUCN [International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources] will be coming to Livingstone on 20 November this year. "They are coming to do a ground inspection on how far Zambia and Zimbabwe have gone in terms of upholding the various protocols that have a bearing on the status of the Victoria Falls as a World Heritage Site but, of course, their coming might have been influenced, in a way, by whatever is being said and circulated about this World Heritage Site," he said.

Maureen Mwape, spokesperson for the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), declined to comment on the allocation of the land to Legacy Holdings. The Zambian portion of the World Heritage Site is jointly managed by ZAWA and the National Heritage Heritage Conservation Commission.

At a July meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, the committee cited concerns that "the integrity of the property [Mosi-O-Tunya National Park] remained threatened by uncontrolled urban development, pollution and unplanned tourism development."

Tourism has been designated a key sector for job creation and poverty relief by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa's government. His pro-market economic policies have endeared him to western donors, but have had little impact on addressing dire unemployment levels. Zambia, with a population of about 10 million, has about 400,000 formal-sector jobs, while two-thirds survive on $1 or less a day.

A recent World Bank report, 'Challenges of African Growth: Opportunities, Constraints and Strategic Directions', indicated that despite vast natural resources, and political stability since independence from Britain in 1964, income levels had regressed."Zambia's and Cote d'Ivoire's per capita incomes have hardly progressed relative to their levels in 1960. Zambia's per capita income on average retrogressed at -0.6 percent per annum over the past 45 years and, as a result, its 2004 level of $902 in 1996 international prices is 23 percent below the 1960 level of $1,167", the Bank said.

The Environmental Council of Zambia, a governmental watchdog, called a meeting in Livingstone, the tourism capital of Zambia, last Saturday to discuss the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report. The period for objecting to the proposed resort will close on 20 November.

Council spokesperson Justine Mukosa said the EIA encouraged "as wide participation of stakeholders as possible. Then, based on what all stakeholders say, and indeed on our own independent investigations and assessments, we shall soon come up with our final position on why the project should go ahead or not go ahead - we shall approve or disapprove the project."

The resort's promise of creating 2,000 jobs has elicted strong support for the project among local residents and organisations. "We, the people of Livingstone, want development. We want Legacy because we have suffered too much with joblessness and poverty," said Shadrick Mabote, a representative of senior chief Mukuni, in whose chiefdom the Victoria Falls is located. "We are ready to take any action against those opposing the project, and we can even walk up to State House [the presidential residence] in protest if anything is done to disturb Legacy from constructing the project in this land."

Livingstone, with a population of about 200,000 people, has not been spared the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic - about one in five sexually active adults is infected.Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union deputy secretary-general Michelo Chizyuka told IRIN that "Each one of us keeps at least three unemployed dependants in our homes because of many factors, including HIV/AIDS. So it is a question of who puts food on our tables. Here is the opportunity for our relatives to be employed; should we give more regard to conserving the environment at the expense of fighting our own poverty honestly?"

UNESCO declared a 30km radius of Zimbabwean and Zambian territory around the Victoria Falls a World Heritage Site in 1989. Since then Zambia has ratified a number of international treaties, including the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.Zambian law on land tenure vests all national parks and gazetted sites in the hands of the state, and any lease of such land is subject to normal tender procedures.Sonny Mulenga, Zambia's first qualified land valuation surveyor and a former minister, said the land had not been advertised or subjected to any tender procedures.

"We are setting a very bad precedence for the future generation - land which is gazetted, as a World Heritage Site should never be given out for a song. No records have been given on who evaluated that land, and the amount in question is a mockery."

Environmental activists say the indiscriminate allocation of land to developers has contributed to the reduction of water levels in the Zambezi River, which feeds the Victoria Falls. Although local environmental regulations require development to stop at least 50m away from the river banks, several lodges have been constructed on the river's banks.

"The Victoria Falls is not as forceful as it should be and the Zambezi River is no longer flowing naturally, due to so much uncontrolled developments. We have disturbed the water cycle, and we shall pay heavily for this as a country," said Benjamin Mibenge, a local environmentalist and game ranger with over 20 years' experience. "Going by the high levels of river pollution, structures constructed on the banks, and the overcrowded boat-cruise companies, we may not boast of any tourism just a few years from now."

Source: Concerns mount over World Heritage Site status (The New Humanitarian, 14th November 2006)

Monday, 4 December 2006

Golf resort hits rough

The Sunday Times (London)
December 03, 2006

A group of British tour operators is urging a boycott of a hotel group in protest against the planned construction of a luxury resort complex at the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site in Zambia.

The South African-based Legacy Hotels Group, which owns five-star hotels, safari lodges and bush camps in Africa’s most popular safari destinations, has admitted that the vast 18-hole golf resort, comprising two hotels, 500 chalets and a country club in an important elephant habitat on the banks of the Zambezi, will cause “irreversible ecological damage” in the area.

Unesco has told the company that the development is “irresponsible” and has promised a worldwide campaign to discourage tourists from visiting the area.

The British safari operators Expert Africa, Rainbow Tours, Dragoman, Okavango Tours & Safaris, Aardvark Safaris and Wildlife Worldwide have pledged to support the boycott, proposed by the ecotravel specialist Tribes.

The director of Tribes, Amanda Marks, said: “We think that a campaign to stop this development should begin before construction gets under way and the prime elephant habitat on the banks of the Zambezi is bulldozed.” 

Source: Golf resort hits rough (The Sunday Times, 03/12/06)

Sunday, 3 December 2006

Victoria Falls hotel fury

 The Times (UK), December 02, 2006

Richard Siddle

A plan to build a huge resort in a tiny Unesco national park is causing widespread anger.

BRITISH tourists are being urged to boycott a South African hotel chain over plans to build a multimillion-pound resort in a protected area near the Victoria Falls.

Legacy Resorts & Hotels International, the luxury African hotel chain, was handed a contract by the Zambian Government to build what will be a £136 million, 450-room hotel complex and golf course on Unesco-protected land in the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park, 6km from the falls.

Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has already expressed its concerns to the Zambian authorities over what it sees as the level of “uncontrolled, urban development, pollution and unplanned tourism development” in the protected park.

British and African tour operators are petitioning fellow companies to boycott the hotel chain if the deal goes ahead.

A final decision based on the developers’ environmental impact assessment is expected by December 15.

UK African specialist travel companies, including Tribes, Expert Africa, Rainbow Tours, Okavango Tours & Safaris, Aardvark Safaris, Dragoman and Wildlife Worldwide, have signed up to the boycott.

“The travel industry must get together to protest,” said Amanda Marks, managing director of Tribes. “If we do not, it will set a dangerous precedent in Africa.”

Roger Diski, managing director of Rainbow Tours, said: “It would be a disaster if it goes ahead. If you put that number of people into that kind of resort in that area the pressure on water and services would just be too much.”

John Spence, director, of Aardvark Safaris, said: “The national park is the size of a postage stamp. It is the only place in Zambia where you can see rhino, so to build a huge hotel there seems utter madness. It is important we bombard the Zambian Government and let it be known how strongly we feel about this.”

British operators recognise the economic impact a hotel of this size could have in terms of jobs, but are urging Legacy to look at alternative sites outside the protected national park.

“We are not against development per se. It is just we do not want the Victoria Falls area to be spoilt,” Diski said.

“We are not saying, don’t build at all, just could it be built successfully outside the protected area. If it can then it makes a nonsense of this proposal,” said Dick Sisman, the Association of Independent Tour Operators’ responsible tourism adviser and a member of the World Commission for Protected Areas.

A number of tour operators in Africa are also refusing to send clients to Legacy hotels’ other 21 African properties, according to Andrew Anderson, director of operations at travel firm African Insight. “We cannot support the principles of responsible tourism and still be seen to be doing business with the Legacy Group,” he said.

Legacy says that it is working with the Zambia Wildlife Authority and Zambia’s National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) on a project that will create 3,000 jobs and bring in 300,000 extra tourists.

Legacy refused to comment directly and instead referred The Times to an NHCC statement that the development will comply with “both national and international environmental guidelines for such an ecological and culturally sensitive site”.

Source:  Victoria Falls hotel fury (The Tiimes, 02/12/06)