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More than 500 delegates from 16 African countries are meeting in the Zimbabwean capital Harare for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) Conference and Summit from May 19-23, 2025.
TFCAs are collaborative efforts spanning countries to promote biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of resources and ecotourism. By using the TFCA model, southern Africa has successfully preserved its extensive natural resources, resulting in its wildlife becoming the largest globally.
The four-day event will be attended by delegates from 16 SADC member states that make up the region’s 18 TFCAs as well as international delegates. The SADC bloc is made up of Angola, Botswana, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The over 500 delegates include political leaders, traditional leaders, local communities, governments, conservation and tourism organisations, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, the private sector and independent conservation organisation, among others, said Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) spokesperson Tinashe Farawo to Down to Earth.
The primary objectives of the conference and summit are to strengthen political commitment to the TFCA programme, promote investments in TFCAs and enhance cross-sectoral integration for sustainable development.
Expected outcomes of the summit include the development of an actionable plan to support the SADC-TFCAs programme 2023-2033, new binding agreements for establishing additional TFCAs, signing of joint management frameworks and sustainable financing agreements between SADC heads of state as well as international cooperating partners. There would also be a review of ongoing efforts to implement the SADC-TFCA model of cooperation, reinforcing partnerships among member states.
The SADC bloc acknowledged that TFCAs can be effective vehicles for fostering regional cooperation and integration, and enhancing socio-economic development in rural areas through the sustainable use of shared natural and cultural resources.
Many renowned tourism destinations are situated within SADC-TFCAs. The TCFA model boosts tourism at a regional level, augmenting their potential to generate employment in rural and marginalised communities, and thereby contributing to poverty reduction. The SADC-TFCA Programme of 2013 envisioned the region to become “a model of community-centred, regionally-integrated and sustainably-managed network of world class transfrontier conservation areas”.
In the SADC region, there are 18 existing or potential TFCAs in both terrestrial and marine environments, covering over 700,000 square kilometres. These have been grouped into three categories based on the level of development: Eight of them are in Category A (TFCAs with a treaty or other form of legally binding and mutually recognised agreement), four are in Category B (TFCA with a memorandum of understanding) and another six are in Category C (TFCAs at a conceptual stage).
The most successful of the region’s eight operational TFCAs is Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA), a 520,000-square kilometre wetland paradise. It straddles five southern African nations — Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe — that have common international borders along the Okavango and Zambezi river basins. It is home to a dense concentration of wildlife species, including the largest elephant population.
The KAZA states signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006, resulting in the KAZA Treaty of 2011 followed by its immediate implementation. The KAZA-TFCA area is a partnership centred around “a common vision to conserve biodiversity at scale through promoting integrated transboundary management and to market the landscape biodiversity using nature-based tourism as the engine for rural economic growth and development”.
In July last year, a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique-Zambia (ZIMOZA) TFCA was signed in Harare by the three countries for the conservation of shared natural resources in the shared area downstream of Zambezi river. This TFCA with a population of 600,000, covers 11 districts across the three countries that teem with abundant wildlife along the Zambezi escarpment.
Among other issues expected to dominate the discussions at the summit is the region’s common problem of a too large wildlife population. It has become a burden for authorities because of the increasing cases of human-wildlife conflict, ecological damage as well as high costs of protecting the animals.
Six of the countries are particularly facing the challenge of elephant overpopulation. Especially emotive are two issues: The move by most Western countries to enact laws banning the import of wildlife hunting trophies into their jurisdictions as well as the continued refusal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to allow these southern African countries to trade in wildlife products.
Also expected to take centre-stage at the summit is the effect of climate change on the region’s conservation initiatives.
Supported by the European Union and Germany as its key institutional partners, the event is being held under the theme: “Transfrontier Conservation Areas — 25 years of cooperation for regional integration and sustainable development”.
