Victoria Falls outlines green tourism vision

VICTORIA Falls has a vision to become Africa’s green tourism destination hence the decision by tourism players in the resort town to adopt environmentally friendly policies.

The tourism players revealed this during a Press briefing here on Saturday where they called for collective involvement of business, civic groups, citizens and Government towards keeping the resort town in its pristine state. The Press conference was organised for Inyathi High School pupil Nkosilathi Nyathi (16) who was recently in Madrid, Spain where he represented Zimbabwe and Africa as an environment ambassador at the just ended United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25).

Greenline Africa trustee, Ms Charlene Hewat, said the future of tourism depends on sound environmental policies.

“The vision is for Victoria Falls to be Africa’s greening destination hence we need to adopt mitigation measures through partnerships between business and communities,” she said.

While stakeholders stated that the Zambezi River was unlikely to dry up as portrayed by foreign media, they said serious mitigatory measures should be taken to keep the environment in its natural state in light of changes that are taking place because of climate change. Ms Hewat said recent reports about Vic Falls being dry had adversely affected tourism hence the need for pro-active measures.

“Victoria Falls is not dry. Zambezi is the oldest river in the world and will never dry up. The catchment area is already receiving rain and soon the river will start filling up. People should understand that it is seasonal and every year it dries up on the Zambian side. All we need to do is look at what we use so that no human activities affect the river flow,” she said. 

“Conservation agriculture is the way to go so that we help each other maintain our environment.”

An environmental-agricultural expect and Igugu Trust proprietor, Mrs Precious Phiri, who is Africa’s representative at Re-Generation International Global Network who also attended Cop25, called on policy makers to involve communities in environment management.

“Climate change is real and impacts on rainfall patterns, which then affects our tourism because it is flora and fauna based. If you note, deserts are advancing hence we need to engage communities around Victoria Falls so that they understand environmental issues,” she said. 

“Our policy making should involve communities because eco-tourism should start  with communities.”

Mrs Phiri said tourism should not just be consumeristic but productive and conservative such as engaging in projects like beekeeping, gardening and other waste management projects.

“Now it’s time to rethink agriculture because it’s no longer business as usual in light of climate change. We need regenerative agriculture with participation of Government, civic society and all citizens,” she said.

Nkosilathi, who did his primary education at Chamabondo in Victoria Falls, started environment work by posting videos to raise awareness on air pollution and waste management. He focused on air pollution in the coal mining town of Hwange and waste management in Victoria Falls. The two videos caught the attention of Greenline Africa and Unicef leading to his selection to represent the country at COP25 where he made a presentation about waste management activities in Zimbabwe.

Nkosilathi urged Government to involve youths in environment management programmes so that they grow up appreciating the importantce of protecting the environment. — @ncubeleon

Source: Victoria Falls outlines green tourism vision (18/12/19)