PDF《ZAMBIA NATIONAL REPORT TO THE RAMSAR》

1995 for Ramsar COP

6 and

30 Th. June

1998 Contracting Party: ZAMBIA Designated Ramsar Administrative Authority Full name of the institution: ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL OF ZAMBIA Name and title of the head of the institution: MR JAMES . S. PHIRI, DIRECTOR Mailing address for the head of the institution: ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL OF ZAMBIA P O BOX

35131 LUSAKA, ZAMBIA Telephone: 260-1-254130/1 Fax: 260-1-254164 E-mail: [email protected] Name and title (if different) of the designated contact officer for Ramsar Convention matters: Misozi Phiri (Ms) Acting Senior Inspector Natural Resources Unit Mailing address, Telephone, Fax and E-mail are same as above.

1 SUMMARY Zambia is endowed with an abundance of natural resources and a rich biological diversity. It has been estimated that the country has more than 5,500 species of flowering plants,

233 species of mammals,

731 species of birds,

145 species of reptiles and over

200 fish species. As a country of 752,000 km

2 , it has a total of 6.4 million hectares reserved as protected areas in form of

19 national parks which also serve as areas of abundant and rich biological diversity. Forests are also areas of great biological diversity. They cover 55-60% of the total land area of Zambia. Zambia is considered among the wettest countries in Southern Africa. Approximately

13 % of the country is wetlands (See appendix). Despite abundance in wetland ecosystems, only two sites have been designated as Ramsar Sites. These are Lochinvar/Blue Lagoon National Parks in the Kafue Flats and the Chikuni Game Management Area (GMA) in the Bangweulu Flats. There is need to designate more sites but such a move requires internal and external support. Although Zambia does not have adequate financial resources, significant progress has been made towards the implementation of the objectives of the Ramsar Convention. There is need to supplement government efforts in the management of wetlands especially those programmes which are aimed at building and strengthening the proposed institutional set up of the wetlands unit at the Environnental Council of Zambia which recently has taken over the co-ordination of wetlands management.

2 Ramsar Strategic Plan- General Objective

1 To progress towards universal membership of the Convention 1.1An initiative is being undertaken in trying to develop collaborative programmes with neighbouring countries in the conservation and sustainable use of the Wetlands. Zambia is implementing joint resource management programmes in shared Wetlands systems. In particular: (a) The Upper Zambezi Management Project which is aimed at preparing a plan for the wise management of the Zambezi basin in the Western Province of Zambia. This is a joint programme between Zambia and Namibia. (b) The Okavango Upper Zambezi International Tourism Development Initiative (OUZITI) and is advocating for the establishment of a Southern African Wildlife Sanctuary in the Wetlands associated with the source of the Zambezi basin. A collaborative programme involving five countries namely Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. (c) The Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity programme aimed at pollution control and other measures to conserve biodiversity of the lake. Four countries are involved namely Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. This project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to promote the conservation of Biodiversity and Control of Pollution in Lake Tanganyika. (d) Zambia is also co-operating with Zimbabwe in developing regional programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of fish resources in Lake Kariba. Funding for this project has been provided by the Norwegian Aid Agency (NORAD). (e) Under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) , Zambia is involved in the implementation of the Zambezi River Action Plan which involves wetlands management among other concerns.