The reason for the UN World Tourism Organisation and the Patriotic Front duo agreeing to hold the UNWTO general assembly at Victoria Falls is obvious. Mugabe wants pariah redemption; Sata, a chance to do some more praise singing, perhaps a 21 gun-salute for his friend; the UN body with its 154 mostly small member states (39 UN member countries are not members of UNTWO) obviously wish to bolster Mugabe’s image – along with the UN Human Rights Commissioner Pillay who wants the sanctions against him dropped.
The United Nations has
conveniently forgotten the UNWTO global code of ethics, adopted by its own
General Assembly on 21 December 2012, in which they affirmed that ecotourism is key in the
fight against poverty, the protection of the environment and the promotion of
sustainable development. Mugabe has
promoted unsustainable development of the very worst kind. Canada winced at the thought of dinners with him and with the UNWTO executive
who had made such unprincipled overtures, withdrawing her membership; Germany –
often the first to make a principled stand in these matters - is about to do
the same. So, as the UNWTO meet at Victoria Falls in August to promote
ecotourism, what is the current state of the environment and sustainable
development in the Zambezi Basin shared by these two countries?
The Zambezi River and its tributaries are besieged by hydropower
schemes, work on a new one just started at Batoka Gorge a little downstream of
Vic Falls, designed without thought for climate change considerations and the
inevitable reduction in river flows, power production, revenue and other
adverse impacts. Then there is Katomoboro, Ngonye and Kabompo upstream, the
Lower Kafue and Mupata Gorge downstream. The World Bank under its ignorant
President, Jim Kim - now pushing the ‘transformational’ (sic) dam agenda, has
deemed it so. Power is needed to alleviate poverty he says, despite all the
evidence to the contrary that it is the dams that have created poverty and that
they are part of the poor anti-development agenda. Ask the valley Tonga, the
Ila, the Twa, the people of the Zambezi Delta.
The Zambezi Basin with its balm of seasonal silt and flood waters was
once the Elysian Fields, a miracle of the union of man and nature, much of it
now destroyed. One of the Zambezi River fundis (Beilfus) says, ‘the value of ecosystem services
threatened by hydropower is simply astonishing, agriculture, fisheries,
livestock, tourism and domestic water supply are all effected. Cumulatively, the economic
value of water for downstream ecosystem services exceeds the value of water for
strict hydropower production – even without valuation of biodiversity and
cultural uses of the system’.
To this in Zimbabwe - apart from the
heinous crimes committed since Mugabe lost ‘that’ referendum in 2000 – is added
the smell coming from the ailing ecotourism patient. In the Hwange National
Park and in the encircling conservancies – some of them taken from their
rightful owners, in the Gwayi Valley, mining is about to ensue and tourists
around Main Camp complain of the sound of gunfire, allegedly from hunting
safari operators suddenly allowed to hunt where they should not be. In the Mana
World Heritage Site the process of mining the river sands is underway, while
the government allows offensive tourism developments to intrude.
Across the river in Zambia where
ecotourism thrives, the proposal by Protea Hotels to build a conference centre
on the river in the military/industrial style was defeated. However, in the
Lower Zambezi National Park, advanced plans are afoot to mine copper and
destroy 200 km2 of the middle of the park, poison the river and see the cross-country
destruction of roads by massive trucks daily carrying 160 tonnes of concentrate
to smelters on the Copperbelt. Although the environmental impact statement put
forward by the miners was rejected by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency
(ZEMA), the Minister of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Wylbur
Simuusa, has thrown them a lifeline by allowing the miners on appeal to work
with his Ministry in the manufacture of an acceptable environmental impact
statement. In addition to the mining issue, the Road Development Agency, under
the overall supervision of Sata, has begun construction of a tar highway
through the park, one taking the narrow riverine route. There is no EIA posted
on any government website and people from the valley say there has been little
if any consultation on the issue. And there is no strategic view.
Upstream, between Chirundu and the north
bank of Kariba Dam, we have the many horsemen of the uranium apocalypse,
harbingers of Zambia’s last judgement, mounted upon chargers named, Dibwe,
Mutanga, East-Dibwe, Njame, Gwabe, Siavonga, awaiting the starter flag clasped
in the sweaty palms of the stock-exchange marketeer who will set off the race
when the price of uranium – presently at $41, hits $65 a pound.
Brugge & Buchner of Tufts University in 2011 considered the latest research on
the health effects of uranium mining. They reveal that it is the chemical
toxicity of the metal that constitutes the primary environmental health hazard.
They put forward ‘the strong biological plausibility of adverse effects on the
brain, on reproduction, including estrogenic effects, on gene expression, and
on uranium metabolism’ which will affect mine workers but also residential
areas near uranium mining and processing facilities. They end on a chilling
note, ‘As much damage is irreversible, and possibly cumulative, present efforts
must be vigorous to limit environmental uranium contamination and
exposure’. Added to this are the effects
of radiation caused by radon
gas oozing forth on the wind, radioactive tailings laid on vegetation and
inhaled and ingested by man and beast, an assault on poor people
which will be criminal. Is the Zambian government able to protect mine workers
and nearby villagers? No. Will the government be held accountable? No.
That the government has given permission
for such an attack on their own people is not surprising. It is the way of the
‘Big Man’ system in Zambia, the way of the political economy where political
power is in near total control of ideas, policies and the distribution of
income, serving a narrow band of clients dedicated to keeping their masters at
the power trough.
Lest we forget, six years ago plans for the
alienation and destruction of part of the Victoria Falls World Heritage site
itself - and the Mosi oa Tunya National Park, was agreed to by the Zambia
Wildlife Authority on the instructions of the ‘Big Man’ Mwanawasa who wished to
give his friend J.J. Sikazwe, whom he had appointed as founder chairman of the
Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission, a juicy plum. ZAWA issued a tourism concession agreement for
the park –a two ha site on a five-year lease – to a Zambian company, Tourism Investments Ltd.,
soon to amalgamate with Legacy Resorts & Hotels International, spawning a
subsidiary, Sikazwe’s Legacy Holdings Zambia. This lease was then expanded to a
220 ha concession for 75 years by ZAWA. Renatus Mushinge, the Legacy
Financial Director conveniently had his brother, Tom Mushinge, positioned as
the Financial Director of ZAWA at the time. Legacy undertook to invest $200 million in a
350 villa golf estate with an eighteen-hole golf course, two hotel resorts (480
beds), a club house, marina and a 1000-seater conference centre. For this ZAWA
were promised a $9 million one-off payment (75 percent of their annual income),
and an annual fee of $2 million thereafter. This outrageous landgobble was
defeated by some splendidly determined women in Livingstone – women to go into
battle with. One of them who played a walk-on part was a Zambian lady in a
magnificent green dress whom I will forever remember telling us all at the EIA
hearings of what her walks with her children in the park had meant to her.
Threats by UK tourism agents to boycott Legacy Hotel Group worldwide finally
won the day.
Which
is why I continue to petition the Zambian government against the Lower Zambezi National
Park mining and now call for the UNWTO member countries and affiliates to
boycott the Victoria Falls general assembly should the Minister not give an
undertaking to ban mining in the national park. But Minister Wylbur Simuusa, deems
the petition ‘false and unpatriotic’. In an article in the pro Patriotic Front
government newspaper, The Post, on 24
May 2013, entitled, Simuusa dismisses petition against
UNWTO assembly, he claims that my petition
is malicious and that, ‘ Some of the allegations made in this petition are
unfortunately not true’. The
Minister complains that I had falsely stated that the law only gave him two
weeks to make a decision on the appeal. Well, I was wrong, I admit. It was the
miners who had 14 days to appeal the rejection of their EIA (The Environmental Management Act, 2011 section 29 (5)),
not the Minister. But how does he explain the six months since he first
received an appeal? My information is that ZEMA refused the EIA on 31 August
2012, although the miners say they were informed by ZEMA on 7 September and
then appealed on 19 September.
The
Minister went on to tell the Post reporter that, ‘…a more careful process is
underway to determine whether this decision to preserve the eco-tourism
potential of the valley will at the same time be releasing some of the wealth
trapped underground in Zambia for the benefit of its extremely poor
population’.
Once
again we hear the mantra of poverty alleviation. There are a few people settled
illegally in the park and some immediately outside, peasant farmers, not miners;
and there is no evidence of Zambians benefitting in any real sustainable way
from mining, quite the reverse. Ask those miners who worked for ZCCM and then
were privatised and made absolute paupers, the new mine owners sitting back
having been absolved of paying tax, of being responsible for past pollution and
for the miners’ benefits and welfare. And matters got worse after privatisation,
as I wrote in my forthcoming book, Out of
Zambia,
‘The
‘Big Man’ MMD government under the hapless Rupiah Banda (cherry-picked from
UNIP by Mwanawasa as his successor-protector), lost $2-3 billion dollars a year
of income that should have been tax and shared earnings from mining, with a
derisory royalty process and with no capacity to deal with mining’s massively
damaging environmental and social impacts.
He also ignored the requirement for mining operations to undergo an EIA
pre-qualification by instructing that the Chinese could start mining at Ichimpe
without one’.
To
Simuusa’s credit he finally admitted that there had been no environmental pre-qualification
in Zambezi Resources application and issue of mining licences by the Ministry
of Mines, saying, ‘that two fundamental requirements were overlooked when a
large-scale mining licence was issued to the developers of the proposed mine.
The issue was being addressed’. But the same thing happened with the uranium
mining licences, issued illegally. I had previously drawn the attention of the
Zambia CBNRM Forum to the fact that government had issued both a prospector’s
and a large scale mining license to the miners without the mandatory environmental
reports, and that the Mining Advisory Committee (members being the three
Ministry of Mines Directors, ZEMA and representatives of the Ministries
responsible for environment, land, finance, labour and community development,
the office of the Attorney-General, the Zambia Development Agency, the Citizens
Economic Empowerment Commission, the Geological Society of Zambia and ZAWA)
were complicit in the decision and in serious breach of their responsibilities
under the Mines and Minerals Development Act. The Forum then passed this information
on to the appropriate parliamentary committee in March – who doubtless
communicated the fact to the Minister.
In
the case of ZAWA as we know them, a parastatal in charge of protected areas and
wildlife, now encumbered in the ill fitting suit and straw hat of the Ministry
of Tourism and Arts, and not – as they should be – in Minister Simuusa’s
Ministry, they clearly were instructed to allow the issue of the mining
licences by the Minister in charge at the time. Blame this on the 1970 Wildlife
Act that removed the powers of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and
placed it in the hands of the Minister. What does the present Minister of Arts,
Sylvia Masebo have to say about this; she who threatened to close down online
publications who criticise the UNWTO? But back to baSimuusa who went on to say,
‘As
pressure increases for the exploitation and extraction of minerals and other
resources, as a nation we need to settle this question, especially that the
conflict exists not only in the Lower Zambezi National Park but in other
protected areas of Zambia where there are abundant minerals and other resources.
The Zambian government is at a loss to understand the boycotting of the United
Nations World Tourism Organisation Conference, which will have a beneficial
effect on the management of our superb wildlife and natural resources. We will
urge everyone not to sign the petition because it seeks to cure mischiefs that
do not exist. If you have already signed, we are not sure whether the
organisation will allow you to withdraw your support as they and we as the
Zambian government expect to see you in Livingstone’.
Simuusa
understands not that this question was settled when the area was declared a
national park and confirmed on 18 October 2008 at a gathering of Zambezi Basin
chiefs, among them Senior Chief Mburuma (who gave over land for the Zambezi
park), and Chiefs Chipepo, Simamba, Sinadambwe and Mupuka, when they met and
issued an historic statement against mining for 17 chiefdoms of the Zambezi
Basin. Also on 5 November 2008 the DG of
ZAWA, Lewis Saiwana, wrote to Andy Fleming of Zambezi Resources Ltd saying that
‘National Parks and Game Management Areas should not be subjected to mining
activities’.
Quite
how the UNWTO will benefit the management of Zambia’s wildlife and natural
resources without abiding by its own code of ethics is not explained.
I. P. A. Manning
Dr Manning is a former member
of Zambia’s National Parks & Wildlife Service and – as an investor,
attempted the implementation of his Landsafe development model for customary
areas in the years 2003-2010. He was arrested, imprisoned and then deported in
2008 by the Hon. Rt. Rev. Lt. Gen (ret’d). Ronnie ‘Vuvuzela’ Shikapwasha, who
considered him to be a danger to peace and good order in Zambia.
http://www.change.org/petitions/members-of-the-un-world-tourism-organisation-boycott-the-unwto-general-assembly-in-victoria-falls-24-29-august-2013
See also:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/BOYCOTT_WORLD_TOURISM_CONFERENCE_IN_ZIMBABWE/?cNjLCab
