Reuters | | Posted by Zarafshan ShirazLivingstone, Zambia
Five southern African countries on Friday committed to expand the use of special general visas to ease the movement of tourists within the region, as the region tries to boost tourist arrivals.
Authorities from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which are involved in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, have pledged in principle to broaden the use of a special visa, called a Univisa, which allows entry to multiple countries.
Univisa is currently used in Zambia and Zimbabwe and covers one-day trips to Botswana via Kazungula.
Regional leaders attending the KAZA Heads of State Summit held in Livingstone, Zambia, said they want the special visa to be extended to other states in the conservation area as well as the Southern African Economic Bloc.
“All we have to say is that it will happen,” Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema said in his speech. “I am grateful that my colleagues have reached a consensus on UniVisa.”
Botswana’s Vice-President Slumber Tsogwane said his country would fully adopt UniVisa.
KAZA member countries also resolved to urge the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to lift the ban on the trade of elephants and ivory.
CITES, an intergovernmental organisation with 184 members, regulates the wildlife trade to protect certain species from overexploitation. It banned the trade in African elephant ivory in 1989 after the animal’s population had declined sharply in the previous decade.
KAZA states it has ivory stocks worth $1 billion, which it wants to sell to fund conservation programs.
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