Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) was founded in 1987 by its current Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann, and is headquartered in Washington D.C. Since then, CI has strategically positioned itself to focus on those parts of our planet where the most incisive conservation benefit can be achieved - hence the focus of CI on Biodiversity Hotspots and High-Biodiversity Wilderness Areas around the world. At present, CI employs about 1 000 people active in more than 40 countries, but achieves much of its work through partnerships and subcontracted expertise.
In southern Africa CI has two programmes operating out of its Cape Town base. The Southern Africa Wilderness and Transfrontier Conservation Programme works in three main focal areas, these being the five-nation Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the proposed Ai-Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area between Namibia and South Africa, and the Western Kgalagadi Conservation Corridor in south-west Botswana. The Hotspots Programme deals with the three southern African hotspots (Succulent Karoo, the Cape Floristic Region and the Maputoland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot).
Southern Africa Wilderness and Transfrontier Conservation Programme
This Programme was initiated in 2000, in response to the widespread recognition that the historical approach of conserving isolated protected area “islands” does not offer resilience and long-term sustainability. The Programme therefore assists in the creation of corridors and linkages which are considered necessary to achieve larger scale benefits and longer term resilience within ecosystems.
Our aim is to achieve viable ecosystems that embrace the full spectrum of ecological processes that historically shaped biodiversity in that system, and to achieve the support of local people for these conservation areas. We firmly believe that ultimate success in conserving natural resources within conservation areas can only be achieved if those local communities also derive tangible benefit from such conservation areas, but in a sustainable way.
We adopt a regional approach within Southern Africa which promotes and implements strategies for corridors and linkages across political and other boundaries in order to achieve complementary and integrated conservation-management across the region.
We believe that optimum results can only be achieved if we work in partnership with others, including local communities, NGOs, Governments, and any other affected stakeholders.
Our three current focal areas include:
- The Ai-Ais Richtersveld TFCA which encompasses a large swathe of Succulent Karoo Ecosystem straddling the Orange River between Namibia and South Africa.
- The Kavango Zambezi TFCA (KAZA TFCA) comprises an approximately 278 000km2 tract of land which includes parts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- The Western Kgalagadi Conservation Corridor which is located in south Western Botswana and aims to achieve wildlife connectivity and wildlife movement between the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
What is a “Transfrontier Conservation Area” or TFCA?
The term "Transfrontier Conservation Area" is mostly used in southern Africa where there are already at least seven such formally proclaimed TFCAs. It means exactly the same as the term "Transboundary Conservation Area" (TBCA)used by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which defines a TBCA as follows:
“Transboundary conservation areas are areas of land and/or sea that straddle one or more borders between states, sub-national units such as provinces and regions, autonomous areas and/or areas beyond the limit of national sovereignty or jurisdiction, whose constituent parts form a matrix that contributes to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, as well as the promotion of social and economic development, and which are managed co-operatively through legal or other effective means.”
While the IUCN definition of a TBCA clearly indicates that parcels of land jointly managed for conservation benefit within one country may also qualify as a TBCA as long as it straddles jurisdictional boundaries, in southern Africa a TFCA thus far means jointly managed areas which lie in different countries.
Stated more simply, a TFCA describes a significant international area which crosses political boundaries within which a number of protected areas are linked by corridors of other land-use forms which nevertheless practice sustainable natural resource use, making it one big area of integrated and coordinated environmental and wildlife management. Key to this is that it must enjoy the political support and commitment of all participating governments and authorities, and usually there are multiple benefits flowing from such a TFCA including environmental, social and political. Implicit in all of this is that people are part of the landscape, and the needs of people have to be integrated and accommodated within the broader conservation objectives.
There are a number of other related terms as well, such as:
Transfrontier Park, which is the southern African equivalent of the IUCN Transboundary Protected Area (TBPA) and which is defined by IUCN as follows:
“A transboundary protected area is an area of land and/or sea that straddles one or more borders between states, sub-national units such as provinces and regions, autonomous areas and/or areas beyond the limit of national sovereignty or jurisdiction, whose constituent parts are especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed co-operatively through legal or other effective means.”. A TBPA is usually the core area of a larger TBCA/TFCA, and is usually a national park in one country directly adjoined by a national park in a bordering country.
Then there is also a "Peace Park" or "Park for Peace", which can be either a TBPA or TBCA but it is usually proclaimed more for the specific purpose of fostering and enhancing peace and goodwill between two neighbouring countries. IUCN defines them as follows:
“Parks for Peace are transboundary protected areas that are formally dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and to the promotion of peace and co-operation”
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