Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
conflict (HWC) is likely to be one of the most important costs to residents of the
TFCA, and refers mostly to damage to crops by wild herbivores and stock losses
to predators, and can have significant negative effects on agricultural livelihoods
and household food security. The limited data available suggest that up to 80 per
cent of agricultural households suffer some level of crop damage caused by
wildlife, while almost 20 per cent of stock-owning households suffer losses to
predators (Suich, 2003; Cullis and Watson, 2004). Innovative measures will need
to be developed and trialled (as is happening in some areas) to determine the best
possible method(s) of damage limitation. It will also be necessary to introduce
successful mitigation methods in a timely manner into areas where wildlife
populations expand as resource management improves (particularly in Zambia
and Angola). By implementing such programmes, it will be possible to provide
direct and positive impacts at a household level to a significant proportion of the
rural population.
Infrastructure development and service delivery
The necessity of improving and extending infrastructure within the KAZA region
has been identified as one means to increase tourist access to the KAZA TFCA,
and will obviously impact on access to individual sites within it. National plans for
infrastructure development and the provision of ancillary services (e.g. communi-
cations, electricity, health, finance, etc.) will guide the spatial development of the
tourism industry, and should be coordinated amongst the five countries.
In regions that currently have limited or no access to infrastructure or
services, its provision is likely to have more widespread positive impacts on
poverty, and contribute more to local economic development, than the opportuni-
ties offered by the tourism industry.Thus, infrastructure development and service
delivery must be carefully planned and implemented to ensure that proposed
developments meet not only the needs of the tourism industry, but also those of
residents.
Additional challenges
A number of challenges will face KAZA TFCA institutions in their attempts to
support and facilitate sustainable tourism, support local economic development and
poverty alleviation. As the five countries are at very different stages of economic and
tourist industry development, policy makers will face significant challenges in
attempting to harmonize relevant policy and legislation. The need for coherent
tourism and related policies within the KAZA region will need to be balanced with
the needs of the tourism industry elsewhere in each of the five countries. A balance
will also need to be achieved between regulations and policies that encourage
sustainable tourism, and those that are so complex or bureaucratic that they stifle
the growth of the industry. In many cases, offering incentives for desired outcomes
will be more successful than attempting to regulate undesired behaviour.
Governments are ideally placed to create an enabling environment that stimu-
lates desired outcomes, particularly if the initiative increases the levels of
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