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I was privileged this week to attend the 2024 Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area – KAZA TFCA Head of State Summit in Livingstone Zambia, with an impressive attendance from invited neighboring countries, the platform was set to be one of the most effective collaborative summits yet.
This speaks to the priority set by neighboring states in the region in addressing the climate challenge that exists, with a focus on the protection of some of the world’s most valuable assets. The KAZA TFCA is enormous, larger than Germany and Austria combined, and nearly twice as large as the United Kingdom! It lies in the Okavango and Zambezi river basins where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe converge.
For over a decade, our mission has been making the conservation of wildlife habitat valuable to people, and our focus area has been the Southern part of Africa. Today we have been fortunate to witness the immense value of collaboration in conservation.
The value of Community Forest Programs is an inclusive approach. We aim to connect local communities to sustainable climate finance, and we were lucky to emerge at the dawn of the voluntary carbon markets.
BCP’s journey began with a relatively small pilot around a critically threatened buffer to the lower Zambezi National Park supported by The Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and the Zambian Forestry Department.
Fast forward 12 years and today our efforts are financing the conservation of almost 2mil hectares – connecting the Luangwa to the Zambezi ecosystem.
We have witnessed the return of big cats and elephants in some areas for the first time in over a decade. Even though the backbone is carbon finance, the efforts are still conservation-focused.
The approach is to keep forests standing so that nature can thrive. All of our projects are Climate, community, and biodiversity-focused by design. It’s not just about a carbon offset. It’s creating an offset to support social economic and environmental value creation.
Earlier in the week here we recognized the gap that exists when it comes to conservation finance and the need for nature to be recognized as assets. The big money is never easy to come by (or at least without its own set of T&Cs).
At the start, our conservation efforts were largely donor-funded, initially augmented by carbon finance and today fully sustained by carbon finance. We believe UN-REDD Programme is a key sustainable model for developing a green economy. It helps people recognize the value of nature and provides incentives to conserve forests and wildlife.
Today we have a keen interest with our conservation partners in supporting corridor conservation, as nature has no geographical boundaries. The Greater Limpopo TFCA and KAZA have proven key areas for these initiatives. In just five years, the KAZA program has surged ahead in leaps and bounds.
REDD+ has a key role to play here supporting wildlife dispersal corridors and community development that are enshrined in the transfrontier values.
Our third project in the Western Province of Zambia aims to focus on corridor conservation, linking access to Kafue National Park. From a strategic point of view, our adopted approach together with our partners Peace Parks Foundation compliments the Kaza strategy. The intent is to bring in carbon finance and scale up progress in the landscape.
As a developer, our vision is a single program over multiple jurisdictions, that aligns fully with TFCA conservation. We recently partnered together with the USAID/TNC-led ECCO initiative to support the conservation of the upper Okavango headwaters in Cuando Cubango Province. We’re exploring the potential for a REDD+ project across this key conservation area with a potential corridor from Cuando Cubango to Kafue National Park that’s fully supportive of the strategy at the discussion this week – Promoting conservation without boundaries!
Climate finance can unlock new funding resources, that will help us to transition to low-carbon economies and adapt to climate change impacts. REDD+ offers a viable nature-based solution that attracts private-sector finance and investment.
Communities are increasingly eager to join the fight against climate change and willing to adopt sustainable practices. Even within the current global economic and climate challenge, the results in these conservation areas have been remarkable.
Large-scale initiatives require strong collaboration.
We work closely with governments, conservation partners, financiers, private landowners, and communities. By tackling these challenges together, we can deliver benefits more efficiently and effectively with integrity.
Kudus to the KAZA Secretariat and the Zambian Government for a well-organized event!
