DEG becomes the KAZA conservation area's new partner

DEG plans to provide support for developing sustainable, private-sector managed lodge concepts and in doing so boost the regional economy. Sustainability and responsibility are the guiding principles of DEG's tourism strategy and key factors for financing activities in this sector.

The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area in southern Africa is the largest cross-border nature reserve in the world, spanning five countries: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was officially opened in March 2012. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and KfW Development Bank, as well as other international partners, have supported the project right from the start.

KAZA is located in the Okavango-Zambezi river basin which also lends its name to the reserve, and encompasses a surface area approximately the size of Sweden. The region is made up of 36 individual reserves which are to be linked by ecological corridors aimed at reestablishing traditional migration routes for elephants and other migratory species.

The socio-economic development of the region has special significance in the KAZA project, as most of the region's inhabitants live in poverty, surviving on subsistence farming. The immense diversity of the wild fauna and flora is an opportunity for tourism to be harnessed and used as a catalyst for sustainable regional development, thereby contributing to economic development and poverty mitigation. Thanks to the cross-border cooperative approach to the ecological, economic and social aspects of the project, it serves as a model for the whole region.