The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA / KAZA TFCA) is Africa’s largest conservation landscape and the world’s largest transfrontier conservation area (520,000km2). It incorporates parts of five countries; Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is home to one of the largest remaining populations of cheetah.
In October 2015, the CCI (then the RWCP) was part of a group of 37 carnivore conservation practitioners, government officials, researchers and advisors who got together to develop a unified and strategic approach for conserving large carnivores at scale in KAZA. The KAZA Carnivore Conservation Coalition (KCCC) was born out of this collaborative approach, and the CCI’s southern African coordinator has been on the steering committee since its inception.
The KCCC is a coalition of conservation practitioners who work collaboratively at the landscape scale to develop and implement a strategic and unified program of outcome-focussed conservation and development activities to secure KAZA as a focal landscape for large carnivores.
As part of the strategy, 18 site based priority projects and 3 cross-cutting projects were identified, most with a focus on communities and connectivity. The CCI is active in supporting the entire suite of projects, but focusses on three main projects in three of the five focal areas. The CCI supports three projects in the landscape:
- The Sebungwe Conservation and Development Hub; Sebungwe Landscape, Zimbabwe
- A program to develop holistic planning for conservation and development at the landscape scale to maintain vital connectivity within and beyond KAZA.
- The Inyasemu Community Conservancy; Greater Kafue Ecosystem, Zambia
- Supporting four community chiefdoms to establish a community conservancy for development and wildlife conservation in a critical area of habitat connectivity.
- Community Conservation and Development; Luengue Luiana National Park, Angola
- Engaging with communities as conservation and business partners for community conservation in Angola’s Luengue Luiana National Park.
