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Zambian Important Bird Area News
Mimosa pigra - a threat to Bird
life in Lochinvar National Park
The construction of the Kafue Gorge Dam to generate electricity, and
the resultant changes to the flooding regime of the Kafue Flats, has
transformed the vegetation of the of the floodplain margins. The former
grassland has been invaded by thicket forming shrubs, notably Mimosa pigra. What was formerly the
habitat of the Kafue Lechwe is now inhabited by bushbuck and vervet
monkeys.
For details read the whole
article
Mutulanganga IBA – a
success story for BirdWatch Zambia and WECSZ
Mutulanganga IBA is a Local Forest Reserve in
Southern Zambia that has a sizeable area of mopane woodland. Mopane is
a very hard wood and grows on soils which few other trees will tolerate
- namely clay, or in the shallow sand that covers clay, but cannot
compete on deep well-drained soils. When mopane woodland is felled,
mopane scrub will succeed it. The root system remains intact, but there
is the risk of grasses and fire taking over. Normally mopane woodland
does not burn as the grass cover is discontinuous, but after felling
this can change. The forest protects the headwaters of the
Mutulanganga, Bendele, and Lusitu rivers that flow into the Zambezi
River and in so doing acts as protection from the severe impacts of
flash floods and gully erosion on the agriculture land and surrounding
villages.
Mutulanganga IBA is one of the areas in which
BirdWatch Zambia is working and was selected as
an IBA on the basis of holding Globally Threatened Species and
Biome-restricted Species. The deciduous thicket in the IBA is the
breeding ground of the African Pitta as well as the seasonal host of
the Barred Longtailed Cuckoo, Thrush Nightingale and River and Marsh
Warbler. Other birds of interest are the Western Banded Snake Eagle,
Crested Guineafowl, Purple-crested Turaco, African Broadbill and
Livingstone’s Flycatcher. It is also an important area for the Wildlife
and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia (WECSZ) as the
Mutulanganga Forest helps to protect the Namoomba Elephant Corridor,
thus providing sanctuary and foraging areas for the regional Elephant
population and other large mammals such as Hippos. The forest is also a
significant area of biological diversity which is important to keep
intact for Zambia’s future generations.
In April 2010 the Fly Dragon Wood and Lumber
Company, was awarded a timber logging concession in Mutulanganga IBA on
condition that the Environmental Project Brief (EPB) was approved. The
Project Brief named the target species as Mopane with the goal of
harvesting 40 trees per day. At full operation the project expected to
create “10 or more” jobs in the community. The company submitted an EPB
to the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) and BirdWatch Zambia
immediately lodged
an objection. BirdWatch Zambia also sought help from WESCZ and other
environmental
NGOs to support the objection to the timber logging. Due to this
pressure ECZ called for the Fly Dragon Wood and Lumber Company to do a
full Environmental Impact Assessment on the area.
Living in the area are the Tonga people who used to
live on the shores of the Zambezi River and were trans-located to make
way for Lake Kariba. They had to adapt from their fishing culture to a
farming community in an area which is harsh and arid and not good
farmland. BirdWatch Zambia has been implementing a UNDP/GEF funded
project to
promote community based eco-tourism and biodiversity conservation. The
project aims at improving the livelihoods of the people living in the
area by initiating small scale funding for fishing and farming projects
and developing the craft industry in the area through an organized
marketing system. BirdWatch Zambia with funding from NORAD is also
training bird
guides to show tourists the important birds in the area. The project is
financing the construction of an eco-tourism camp site which will be
able to fund the community for future developments.
Subsequent to the rejection of the EPB, BirdLife
Africa arranged funding for BirdWatch Zambia for some Advocacy work and
a Cost
Benefit Study. BirdWatch Zambia arranged for one of Zambia’s top
ecologists, Mike
Bingham, to do an initial survey of the biodiversity in the area.
BirdWatch Zambia
has also been working with the local Community to help them understand
the long term effects of logging in the forest. The Site Support Group
Chair managed to get an amazing 600 signatures for the community
petition against the project.
A full EIA was duly submitted by the logging company
and in December 2010 it came up for review. Once again BirdWatch Zambia
and WECSZ
together with other environmentally minded organisations and NGOs
submitted full objections to the project.
We heard in mid January 2012 that the EIA has been
rejected by the Environmental Council and that the Fly Dragon Wood and
Lumber Company has been stopped from logging in the Mutulanganga Forest
and adjacent area. The only door left open for the logging company is
to go to the High Court and lodge an appeal, but this is a very lengthy
and costly process and ECZ consider this course of action is unlikely
to happen as BirdWatch Zambia had put forward such a strong case.
This shows that advocacy does work in Zambia if you are
prepared to put in the man hours and stick to the intended goals.
Congratulations to the BirdWatch Zambia and the WECSZ teams for all
their hard work
in saving this very Important Bird Area and Elephant Corridor.
Advocacy on the
proposed large scale mining in the Lower Zambezi National Park
BirdWatch Zambia (BWZ) in collaboration with various Civil Society
Organization (CSO) embarked on some advocacy work against the
development of a large scale copper mine in the Lower Zambezi National
Park and Important Bird Area. Being chair of the Policy and Advocacy
Working Group (PAWG) of the Zambia Community Based Natural Resources
Management Forum (ZCBNRMF), BWZ played an active role in raising an
objection to the proposed mine through ZEMA. The proposed mine has
since been rejected. Work around this continues in the light of the
developer appealing to the Minister of Environment.
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