GoodFund
has raised over €276,000 for the Peace Parks Foundation.
Thanks to the help of everyone who adopted an elephant they can
use these funds for many purposes concerning the development of
transfrontier conservation areas. With these funds, the economic
development, conservation of biodiversity and regional peace and
stability are supported.
Nyika Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA)
€168,000 was allocated to the TFCA. They used the funds to
invest in different projects for nature conservation and socio-economic
development.
The park has been able to start a zoning and planning program.
Zoning is required for further development of the park where various
land use options such as areas of wilderness and tourism areas
are included.
The zoning ensures that the unique biodiversity
of the area is conserved whilst at the same time ensuring that
any potential tourism opportunities are maximized.
Funds were also allocated to the COMAC programme.
This is a crucial socio-economic component of the development
of the park. This programme is aimed at improving support for
conservation efforts at the grass-roots level. Often, out of necessity,
the impoverished local community members harvest the natural resources
in a protected area despite it being illegal. The COMACO programme
provides an alternative solution to help communities become better
custodians of their land, by combining training on how to improve
farming skills with advice on farming methods and suitable crops,
and creating markets through which the products can be sold. This
has the two-fold benefit of raising the economic prosperity of
the community, thus alleviating the poverty and hunger within
the community and therefore demand on the resources within the
park.
Also,
an international co-ordinator has been appointed whose responsibilities
include the drafting of a treaty between Malawi and Zambia which
will formally establish the Peace Park. An institutional framework
will be set up which entails the formation of a several committees
that deal with challenges such as:
• harmonisation of policies and legislation
• cross-border wildlife management, and
• community and tourism development.
Another smaller project where funds were also
allocated is the Chilinda Pine Plantation. This plantation needs
to be reduced in size because the seeds are self-seeding which
could have detrimental consequences for the environment. A feasibility
study is now underway to investigate the best manner to utilize
this plantation whilst reducing its size.
With
the donated funds another feasibility study is to be conducted
in different areas that within the park, but where no knowledge
exists regarding it’s physical features. This study will
provide an overview of the vegetation, wildlife, water resources
and extent of settlement in these reserves.
The wildlife population also needs to be surveyed. A representative
sample of wildlife in this area is required in order to obtain
information on the wildlife numbers. This data can also be used
to measure the success of the TFCA development in terms of increasing
wildlife numbers in the future.
As you can see the money is used in a constructive manner that
leads to improvement of life standards for both wildlife and men.
With the migration of the elephants to the poorer areas of the
park by the Peace parks Foundation, tourism gets a chance to grow
and the economic situation of the local community can start to
improve. The animals have more living space and food provisions
and the local community profits by growing tourism.
|