SADC TFCA Development Guideline - (Endorsed Nov 2015)

The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Secretariat, in collaboration with Member States, developed and presents these Guidelines for the development and establishment of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA’s) for the SADC region. The SADC fifteen year Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) developed in 2003, underwent a reviewed progress for its implementation for the period of 2005 to 2010, and published a report in 2011 (SADC, 2011). This report refers to the development of a SADC Framework on Transfrontier Conservation Areas, which was approved by the Integrated Committee of Ministers in 2007. These strategies, together with the SADC Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement (SADC, 1999), clearly indicate that Transfrontier Conservation Areas hold the potential to deepen regional cooperation, promote peace and stability, ensure the sustainable utilisation of natural resources, as well as providing economic development opportunities through nature-based tourism.

More recently the SADC TFCA Programme identified eighteen (18) existing and potential, terrestrial and marine TFCAs in SADC at different stages of development and recognised that these TFCAs are not developing uniformly across the region. Instead, they differ considerably in spatial parameters, land use categories, level of cooperation between participating countries, and the extent of participation of locally affected communities. Despite the potential benefits of TFCAs, the processes of their establishment between the SADC Nations are limited:

• Through limited capacity of stakeholders including the Governments Departments, private sector and the local communities to take advantage of opportunities offered by TFCAs;
• Because TFCA officials are not fully equipped with the necessary skills to roll out the conservation development concept and reach out to communities;
• Lack of basic infrastructure such as access roads across international boundaries and to specific tourist attractions; and
• Narrow focus on wildlife instead of embracing all transboundary natural resources in TFCAs.
• There remains however a commitment within the SADC region to promote the establishment and development of TFCAs but in doing so to ensure that:
• Local communities are actively integrated into the process through direct involvement and participation in the planning and decision making processes of natural resources management actually realise tangible benefits that work towards the alleviation of poverty;
• The consumptive and non-consumptive utilisation of natural resources is managed within thresholds of sustainability;
• The full suite of opportunities inherent within the natural resource base of these TFCAs is realised to the extent that they provide broader economic development platforms for public/private partnerships and investment opportunities; and
• The projected risks and implications of climate change are reduced with substantial contributions to social and economic resilience.

In order to achieve this it is recognised that the enabling environment which has already been created through the various SADC strategies and structures, needs to be enhanced through the harmonisation of the relevant legal and policy frameworks of the SADC Nations. At a more detailed level it is the shared interpretation and understanding of these mechanisms that also needs to be brought about. It is so often the case that the legal, political, socio-economic, cultural and other differences that exist between countries frustrates cooperation efforts; and therefore Guidelines are required in order to provide a common frame of reference for the development and establishment of TFCAs in the SADC region.