The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) has launched an initiative to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) involved in nature-based tourism across Southern Africa.
The Joint Action on Regenerative Nature-Based Tourism (R-NBT) was launched during a regional stakeholder roundtable in Maun, Botswana.
The initiative is expected to improve access to finance, business development services, market opportunities and capacity building for tourism enterprises, with emphasis on businesses led by women, young people and communities living near protected areas.
It aims to strengthen tourism’s contribution to local economies while ensuring that conservation generates tangible benefits for communities sharing landscapes with wildlife.
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Botswana’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Wynter Boipuso Mmolotsi, represented by the Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary, Charles Kabo Mojalemotho, said regenerative tourism would ensure that “tourism growth strengthens the nature and communities it depends on.”
Mmolotsi said the initiative would help build more resilient and competitive local enterprises while ensuring that the benefits of nature-based tourism reached communities and MSMEs across the KAZA landscape.
KAZA TFCA Executive Director, Nyambe Nyambe, said focusing on women-led, youth-led and community-based businesses would strengthen livelihoods and economic resilience.
“By investing in these businesses, we are investing directly in the resilience and prosperity of the KAZA landscape,” Nyambe said.
The programme is being implemented in partnership with the European Union and the German Government as part of broader support for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tourism agenda, aimed at promoting sustainable tourism, regional integration and private-sector growth.
German Embassy representative, Simone Goertz, said the initiative reflected a long-standing partnership extending beyond tourism to biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and sustainable economic development.
The SADC Director for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Fahari Marwa, said the programme sought to promote tourism that restored the environment rather than simply exploiting natural resources.
The European Union said rising demand for environmentally and socially responsible tourism created opportunities for businesses demonstrating positive impacts on communities and ecosystems.
KAZA TFCA spans Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and encompasses major river systems, national parks, community conservancies and important wildlife migration routes.
AP
