SOUTHERN AFRICAN PEACE PARKS

Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area

Overview

Objectives

The Protocol governing the establishment of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource area sets out the following objectives to create an enabling environment that will facilitate the following:

• economic development through appropriate optimisation of opportunities presented by the parties' natural assets;
• ecologically and financially sustainable development, the sustainable utilisation of the natural resource base, and the maintenance of ecosystem function through holistic and integrated environmental planning and management;
• the development of joint strategies (including regional funding strategies) for trans­frontier ecological planning and resource management for TFCA's;
• the provision of guidance for the encouragement, formulation and implementation of agreements, programmes and arrangements with regard to such joint strategies;
• the establishment of a mechanism for joint review, supervision and decision-making with respect to such agreements, programmes and arrangement;
• mutual consultation and assistance in the practical implementation of the objectives and undertakings related to TFCA management and possible improvement in such management, including joint regulation and policing/security issues;
• the exchange of scientific, technical, legal and any other information relevant to TFCA management;
• the joint development of administrative, technical and scientific capacity at various levels of community and governmental structures;
• the involvement of communities in and adjacent to TFCA's through consultation. representation and participation in TFCA management;
• the recognition and accommodation of traditional activities and culture of local communities in the TFCA's taking into account the maintenance of ecosystem integrity;
• the identification of opportunities to broaden ownership patterns in the TFCA's through among others, the encouragement of local small business, of community-owned ventures, and of joint ventures with domestic and global investors;
• joint education, marketing and publicity campaigns to further TFCA objectives;
• the promotion of the objectives and implementation of the parties' undertakings with respect to relevant international conventions ratified by the parties; and
• the supporting and strengthening of existing and proposed initiatives under way in respect of these objectives in the region and the creation of an enabling framework to assist such initiatives and to create synergies between and among them.