The Kavango–Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZATFCA) Consultative Research Collaboration Forum is scheduled to hold a virtual meeting in October to endorse the recommendations put forth by the recently concluded forum.

The approval process will be initiated subsequent to the sharing of recommendations with the current Chair state of KAZATFCA, Zambia.

The idea was proposed by University of Namibia (Unam) Vice Chancellor Professor Kenneth Matengu during the forum’s closing session at Katima Mulilo on Wednesday.

Matengu recommended that a small working group be established to consolidate the recommended draft and formulate a final research framework. He also recommended that Unam take on the role of secretariat in the process.

The consultative collaboration forum discussed how tertiary institutions within KAZA can contribute collectively to KAZA’s goals and foster research collaborations.

Among the nine themes of recommendations from the consultative meeting were research topics related to community-based management, land use, natural resources, wildlife and human conflict and health.

Professor Martha Nickanor, a member of the drafting committee and Unam’s Executive Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Engineering and Natural Science, said the theme of health as research topic has become essential as wildlife like elephants and fish can carry diseases across regions.

She stressed the importance of creating a strategy to address such risks and highlighted the potential for resource sharing by member states.

KAZATFCA’s vision is to establish a world-class trans-frontier conservation area and tourism destination in the Okavango and Zambezi River basin regions within the context of sustainable development.

It is the second-largest nature and landscape conservation area in the world, spanning the international borders of five southern African countries.

Source: NAMPA