CCARDESA Extends Collaboration to the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) Network
The SADC Secretariat, in collaboration with the SADC/GIZ Climate Resilience and Natural Resources Programme (C-NRM), Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods in SADC Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCAs) (ProSuli) Network, Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, and USAID Resilient Waters Programme, convened a hybrid annual SADC TFCA Network from 26-28 September 2022 at the Premier Roodevalley Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa.
CCARDESA participated in the meeting as it is implementing an 18-month Strengthening the Dissemination of Knowledge about Climate-Smart Agriculture and Climate-Sensitive Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Project funded by GIZ. Through the Programme, CCARDESA aims to enhance knowledge management and communication for sharing innovations and advocacy content related to climate-relevant agriculture within the sub-region. The C-NRM ICKM component is aligned to the CAADP-XP4 Programme, whose overall objective is to enable agricultural research and innovation, including extension services, to contribute effectively to food and nutrition security, economic development, and climate mitigation in Africa. The similarity in the two projects allows for close collaboration.
CCARDESA's participation in the annual SADC TFCA Network meeting was to identify synergies and how to strengthen the capacity of the TFCA network on climate resilience, Knowledge Management and systems. Another reason was to facilitate the development of knowledge products and a community of practice to strengthen lesson learning and information exchange.
The main objective of the meeting was to review the SADC TFCA Programme to reflect on learnings on current needs and develop actions to address the identified needs.
Mr Sydney Nkosi, the Deputy Director for the Department of Environment, Forests and Fisheries from the Republic of South Africa, gave his opening remarks where he emphasized the need to invest more in the TFCAs to build the resilience of the communities. Mr Nkosi reflected on whether TFCAs were viable or justified given the biggest questions that still face communities in TFCAs, such as unemployment, poverty and severe economic issues.
He submitted that these questions had been answered from a conservation and ecosystem point of view but, practically, had not been adequately addressed. Therefore, he urged participants to interrogate socio-economic issues on the TFCAs and how best the communities can benefit from them as they deliberate throughout the three days’ workshop. Mr Nkosi said it is about time for the impact of work within the TFCAs to be quantified and to respond to some of the challenges that are encountered daily.
The SADC Director of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) directorate, Mr. Domingos Gove in his opening remarks, reminded participants that the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Plan (RISP) recognizes TFCAs as a critical area as it contributes to proper utilization of conservation areas in the SADC region. He also urged participants not to detach themselves from SADC as all people in the network are SADC and should fully own all SADC frameworks and protocols around the TFCAs.
The representative of the SADC Chair from the Democratic Republic of Congo officially opened and welcomed the participants to the meeting by stressing the need for information sharing among the TFCAs Networks as one way to help conquer their challenges. He added that communication is a critical approach which will strengthen the collaboration among the SADC Member States. He reminded the participants of the milestones that were agreed to in Rwanda and how SADC TFCAs now need to transform policies into actionable activities for the benefit of the Network. "It is about time we walked the talk", he said. He also reminded the participants of the critical role of partnerships in TFCAs "if you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to go far, walk together". With this proverb, he officially opened the meeting and wished participants fruitful discussions that would strengthen the TFCAs in the SADC region.
Ms Futhi Magagula, the CAADP-XP4 Programme Officer, highlighted past and ongoing CCARDESA's capacity strengthening initiatives, including climate change adaptation, resilience and knowledge management, and how CCARDESA was geared and ready to support capacity-building efforts and improve knowledge management among the TFCAs Network.
During the same meeting, SADC /TFCA Focal point persons presented individual country statuses. The most common reported issues among them was the good progress being made, including signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among countries and collaboration on the creation of corridors. However, lack of funding for implementing TFCAs activities was cited as a common constraint.
The meeting also learned of the many funding opportunities available for TFCA through sessions from EU NaturAfrica Programme for Southern Africa, the Pan African Conservation Trust Fund initiative, Sweden's project portfolio on a regional level in Africa, EU EcoFish Programme for the Western Indian Ocean Region and from Blue Action Fund. One of the presenters, Ms Patience Gandiwa, said that Africa needs more resilient and reliable financing to combat the challenges that TFCAs face in the SADC region.
The meeting was divided into four streams, each focusing on a specific area. The first stream focused on Transboundary Coastal and Marine Management. Its main objective was to develop an actionable and timebound roadmap on how SADC countries will address the key institutional, relational, policy and legal bottlenecks that stagnate the establishment and operationalization of marine TFCAs in the SADC region. After their deliberations, the 1st stream recommended that there was a need to develop a Learning and Knowledge Sharing Programme which will facilitate the documentation of best practices, case studies and lessons learned between terrestrial and marine TFCAs, implementing agencies, and key stakeholders.
The 2nd stream discussed issues around TFCAs & transboundary rivers building resilience to Climate Change. The main objective of this stream was to devise a mechanism through which the TFCAs' capacity will be built around climate resilience, knowledge management and probe the creation of the Climate Resilience Community of Practice for TFCAs (NRM, Water, Climate, DRR, Energy) among others. This stream recommended that CCARDESA should be used as a regional resource to build capacity on Climate Change adaptation and resilience building, Knowledge management and also to facilitate the creation of the said Community of practice.
The 3rd stream deliberated on Connectivity, Conservation and Human-Wildlife Conflict, and it was recommended that Corridors should be research-based (use of collars, camera traps etc.). If corridors are established following informed recommendations, Human Wildlife Conflict impacts are reduced. They further recommended that funds be secured for establishing corridors and drafting the management plans.
The 4th stream focused on Rural Development & livelihoods and recommended the urgent need to embrace environmental justice for TFCA residents and invest more resources and means into local development and well-being. They further advised on having a skilled workforce for TFCAs, that will tackle issues related to local livelihoods.
The meeting attracted delegates from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. International Cooperating Partners were also present, including the European Union, Peace Parks Foundation, USAID, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Resilient Waters, among others. Approximately 130 participants attended the SADC TFCAs Network Annual meeting, of which 75 were present physically and 65 virtually.
