SADC: Countries Establish Transfrontier Conservation Area

On August 18, during the Southern African Development Community Summit in Luanda (Angola) the Presidents of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Treaty legally establishing the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA). The treaty allows the area to potentially become the world's largest conservation area, spanning 444,000 square kilometers incorporating a number of national parks, conservancies, forest reserves and wild management areas, which are home to Africa's "big five" and other species such as cheetah, African wild dog, sable and roan antelope.
The Memorandum of Understanding serving as the basis for negotiations

More Information

Botwana: Judgement on Kalahari Bushmen's access to water

Survival International reports an important victory for the Kalahari bushmen in Botswana in their court case involving the right to water. 

In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal today quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands.

With support from Survival, the Bushmen appealed a 2010 High Court judgment that prevented them from accessing a well which they rely on for water. The panel of five Appeal Court judges has found that:

·       the Bushmen have the right to use their old borehole, which the government had banned them from using

·       the Bushmen have the right to sink new boreholes

·       the government’s conduct towards the Bushmen amounted to ‘degrading treatment’.

·       the government must pay the Bushmen’s costs in bringing the appeal.

The full text of the final appellate judgement can be found at: http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/545/bushmen-water-appeal-judgement-jan-2011.pdf