World’s biggest eco-region could get even bigger
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday November 18, 2025 08:36
A few years ago, reports emerged of increasing commercial and related activities along the river systems that feed the Okavango Delta, an alarming trend that threatened the World Heritage Site and its economy.
Angola is the water tower of SADC, with several rivers emerging from its highlands, flowing south and east to nurture the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the world's largest terrestrial transboundary conservation area.
Spread across the connecting regions of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Angola, KAZA is a paradise in every sense of the word, boasting both the Okavango Delta and the Victoria Falls, forests, wetlands, some of Africa’s greatest river systems and a natural beauty that is amongst the world’s wonders.
KAZA boasts the largest contiguous population of elephants, being uniquely one of the only places on Earth that can consistently satisfy their huge demands - adult elephants can eat up to 200 kilogrammes of food per day and drink up to 200 litres of water.
As Angola emerges from decades of civil war, the demand to catch up on development has meant accelerated commercial activity around areas that for years had been abandoned to nature, and thus helpful to the eco-region.
Areas previously abandoned to war and landmines are now seeing more human activity, requiring associated infrastructure and natural resources such as water.
National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, Research Director, Dr Rainer von Brandis, recently flagged the loss of peatlands in the Angolan highlands as something that poses “a serious threat to the hydrology of the entire system”. The peatlands of the Angolan Highlands Water Tower have been described as the “glaciers of the Okavango” because they are the sponges that hold water and slowly release to rivers, ensuring a relatively constant flow throughout the season.
The peatlands are being negatively affected by over-burning, often caused by human activities, while the entire eco-region is witnessing deforestation, caused by forests being cleared for agriculture, or logging for timber, which results in increased runoff and soil erosion.
While examples exist globally of how humans wiped out entire species in their bull-headed pursuit of development, the Angolan government is earning commendations for its balancing of its citizens’ aspirations and the natural capital of its wilderness resources.
What could have been a major threat to KAZA and icons such as the Delta, is being carefully managed by authorities in the regional water tower.
Dr Nyambe Nyambe, the executive director of the KAZA Secretariat, says the idea for an expanded KAZA region, to cover the water towers and associated critical territory, actually came from the regional leaders themselves.
“I was in Angola two weeks ago meeting with them, as well as a month before that and the discussions were very clear that we should think about extending the boundary of KAZA to the headwaters,” he said during discussions at the recent First Africa Biodiversity Summit. “We should not underestimate the power of the political will of the five partners. “As someone speaking from within, I can confidently tell you that not a single major development will not go through the necessary environmental and social studies.”
Nyambe separately told Mmegi that the Angolan government was also in the process of securing the highlands’ designation as a RAMSAR site, a UN classification providing protection of “wetlands of international importance”.
“I think you need to appreciate that Angola has done a lot,” he told Mmegi. “You have to appreciate that the country is coming from many years of civil strife and they are investing quite a lot in safeguarding the natural capital of the country. “They realise also that they are part of the regional community.”
Expanding KAZA to include the headwaters in Angola would ensure that the transboundary cooperation, mutually agreed protections and even resource mobilisation enjoyed within the transfrontier area, are extended to the water tower.
However, under the KAZA treaty, no country dictates to another.
“The five partner states do not necessarily absolve themselves of their responsibilities for their national territory. “But they are committed to aligning the management of these areas in such a manner that they give us the collective value of transboundary cooperation and management. “It’s not about countries dictating to others; that’s not in the treaty,” Nyambe told Mmegi.
The citizens of Angola who spent nearly three decades unable to fully access the value of their natural resources, are being magnanimous in balancing their own burning needs and that of the greater KAZA region.
While the partner governments in KAZA agree on the principles, it’s the citizens living with wildlife, sometimes dangerous, in the wilderness who have to make the sacrifice for the greater good.
“It's not just government,” said Nyambe. “It's also traditional leaders and other stakeholders who are acutely aware of the urgency and importance of protecting these critical freshwater resource areas in Angola. “I was actually talking to a traditional leader of the Nganguela people in that area and he said ‘we know that our water goes all the way to Mozambique.’” Ends...