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Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) is an agency of the Zimbabwe government managing national parks. Zimbabwe's game reserves are managed by the government. They were initially founded as a means of using unproductive land.
The first proclaimed game reserve was Wankie (now Hwange), formed in 1928 and upgraded in the 1949 National Parks Act. The then-Rhodesia's game section was originally formed in 1952 as a subsidiary of the Department of Mines, Lands and Surveys. This was the nucleus that became the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in 1964.
The Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975 established the agency. [1] It was a quintessential breakthrough for conservation. The attitude of people towards wildlife underwent a profound change. Under the act, ownership of wildlife passed from the state to whoever owned the land the animal lived on.[ citation needed ]
When the landowners (both communal and private) became custodians of the wildlife, a change in mindset occurred. People began to see their wildlife resources as an asset to be nurtured, ensuring their benefits continued into the future. Gradually, fence-breaking elephant and zebra were not viewed as nuisances to be eradicated; herds of impala were no longer a quick, easy meal.
Within the Parks and Wildlife Act, various levels were defined at which state-owned land was to be protected and utilised. Gone was the old Game Department that issued hunting licences which, for a nominal fee, allowed settlers to hunt wildlife in all areas but a few game reserves. A system of national parks, botanical reserves and gardens, sanctuaries, recreational parks and safari areas was set firmly in place. Since 1975, the act has been amended and refined, allowing the evolution of a dynamic wildlife-protection process.
Many African countries have since adopted this philosophy. So far-reaching was the concept of the original act that it now enshrines many aspects of grassroots conservation being implemented worldwide. Communal or traditional tribal areas and privately owned land were also categorised for different levels of utilisation.
Communal areas harbouring significant wildlife resources or bordering national parks were given Appropriate Authority status through their Rural Councils, and as a result the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources was born. CAMPFIRE has developed into an important conservation strategy, ensuring that significant financial earnings revert to rural communities for their benefit. This philosophy has been adopted on a pan-African basis and is slowly being implemented in Asia and South America as well.
Many of Zimbabwe's national parks, such as Victoria Falls, Mana Pools and Hwange, are renowned worldwide, though the country also has lesser-known gems such as Chizarira and Gonarezhou. Parts of the Rhodes Estate, established in Rhodes' will of 1902, were bequeathed to the nation for farming, forestry and agricultural research. This land later became part of the rocky Matobo and mountainous Nyanga National Parks.
A transboundary protected area (TBPA) is an ecological protected area that spans boundaries of more than one country or sub-national entity. Such areas are also known as transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) or peace parks.
The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Eastern Highlands extend north and south for about 300 kilometres (190 mi) through Zimbabwe's Manicaland Province and Mozambique's Manica Province.
Gonarezhou National Park is a national park located in southeastern Zimbabwe. It is situated in a relatively remote corner of Masvingo Province, south of Chimanimani along the Mozambique border. Owing to its vast size, rugged terrain and its location away from main tourist routes, large tracts of Gonarezhou remain pristine wilderness.
Hwange National Park is the largest natural reserve in Zimbabwe. It is around 14,600 sq km in area. It lies in the northwest of the country, just off the main road between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. The nearest town is Dete. Histories of the region's pre-colonial days and its development as a game reserve and National Park are available online
The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Matopo/Matob was named by the Lozwi, who are the ancestors of Kalanga. A different tradition states that the first King, Mzilikazi Khumalo when told by the local residents that the great granite domes were called madombo he replied, possible half jest, "We will call them matobo" - an IsiNdebele play on 'Bald heads'.
Chizarira National Park is a national park that lies in Northern part of Zimbabwe. At 2,000 square kilometres, it is the third-largest national park in Zimbabwe, and also one of the least known because of its isolated situation on the Zambezi Escarpment. It has good wildlife populations and some majestic scenery. The name of the park comes from the Batonga word chijalila, which translates into English as "great barrier", referring to Zambezi Escarpment, of which Chizarira’s rough terrain forms a part.
Kazuma Pan National Park is situated in Zimbabwe's extreme north-western corner, lying on the Botswana border a short distance north-west of Hwange National Park. Some 77,345 acres (313 km²) in area, it provides one of Zimbabwe's few areas of plains scenery, with good visibility and sparse but important mammal populations.
Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is a 35,000 km² peace park that is in the process of being formed. It will link the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, Kruger National Park in South Africa, Gonarezhou National Park, Manjinji Pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari Area in Zimbabwe, as well as the area between Kruger and Gonarezhou, the Sengwe communal land in Zimbabwe and the Makuleke region in South Africa.
The Limpopo National Park was born when the status of Coutada 16 Wildlife Utilisation Area in Gaza Province, Mozambique, was changed from a hunting concession to a protected area. It forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park with the Kruger National Park in South Africa and the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
Mana Pools National Park is a 219,600 ha wildlife conservation area and national park in northern Zimbabwe. It is a region of the lower Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the flood plain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season. As the lakes gradually dry up and recede, the region attracts many large animals in search of water, making it one of Africa's most renowned game-viewing regions.
Matetsi is a village in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe and is located about 55 km west of Hwange. The village started as a railway siding and took its name from the nearby Matetsi River. Most of the surrounding land is under forest and the Matetsi Safari Area. The nearest airports are Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Kasane (Botswana), and Livingstone (Zambia)
The wildlife of Zimbabwe occurs foremost in remote or rugged terrain, in national parks and private wildlife ranches, in miombo woodlands and thorny acacia or kopje. The prominent wild fauna includes African buffalo, African bush elephant, black rhinoceros, southern giraffe, African leopard, lion, plains zebra, and several antelope species.
Thuli Parks and Wildlife Land is a protected area in south-western Zimbabwe. It comprises four areas within the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Estate and covers the entire west bank of the Shashe River within the Thuli Circle.
Zimbabwe boasts several tourist attractions, located in almost every region of the country. Before the economic changes, much of the tourism for these locations came to the Zimbabwean side but now Zambia benefits from the tourism. The Victoria Falls National Park is also a tourist attraction and is one of the eight main National Parks in Zimbabwe, largest of which is Hwange National Park. Zimbabwe is home to one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Victoria Falls, an attraction that pulls thousands of visitors for the famous Victoria Falls tour.
Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is the second-largest nature and landscape conservation area in the world, spanning the international borders of five countries in Southern Africa. It includes a major part of the Upper Zambezi River and Okavango basins and Delta, the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, the southeastern part of Angola, southwestern Zambia, the northern wildlands of Botswana and western Zimbabwe. The centre of this area is at the confluence of the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers where the borders of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet. It incorporates a number of notable national parks and nature sites, including Chobe National Park, Hwange National Park, and the Victoria Falls. The region is home to a population of approximately 250,000 animals, including the largest population of African Elephants in the world.
The Peace Park Foundation, founded in 1997 by Dr Anton Rupert, President Nelson Mandela and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, is an organization that aims to re-establish, renew and conserve large ecosystems in Africa, transcending man-made boundaries by creating regionally integrated and sustainably managed networks of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). Peace Parks Foundation has been involved in the establishment and development of ten of the 18 TFCAs found throughout southern Africa, all of which are in various stages of development. The establishment of each TFCA, or peace park, is complex and far-reaching, and involves several phases of activity, which can take many years to achieve.