The Lusaka High Court has put a temporary stop to the cutting of trees, agriculture and water extraction within the Kasanka National Park and its buffer zone, the Kafinda Game Management Area (GMA), according to a non-profit that manages the park.
The Park is a reprieve for the area that is a stopover on the largest mammal migration in the world.
Some 8-10 million African straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) migrate every year from October to December to the park, from the rainforests of the Congo and roost in an area of 25 hectares of evergreen swamp forest.
This species is the second-largest fruit bat in Africa.
It can have a wingspan of up to a metre and adults can weigh up to 350 grams.
The fruit bats act as pollinators and seed dispersers.
The bat migration plays a leading role in the reforestation and regeneration of areas during the animals’ journey.
Deforestation and degradation of the Kafinda GMA would pose a direct threat to the bats and damage the park’s ecosystem and wildlife that are a major source of food security for local communities, according to park officials.
The activities were being carried out by Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures Ltd. Lake Agro Industries is a subsidiary of the Tanzanian-owned Lake Groupk.
The Kasanka National Park is one of Zambia’s smallest (39,000 ha) but ecologically significant national parks.
The ruling also prevents the extraction of water from the Luwombwa river beyond limits prescribed in the water permit granted by Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA), which has since expired, according to the Kasanka Trust, a non-profit.
The Kasanka Trust co-manages the park located in Chitambo with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW).
The Mapepala and Nabowa Community Forest Management Groups, together with the Kasanka Trust, had filed the application in court against destructive and illegal land clearing operations taking place in and around the Kasanka National Park.
The order passed by High Court Charles Kafunda, read:
Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures Ltd are hereby restrained from any further cutting of trees, clearing vegetation, further construction works, fencing of or any other further activities or development on the land and abstraction of water from the Luombwa river exceeding amounts stated in the water permit.
Conservationists have hailed the high court injunction and said the ruling was a step forward in protecting the world’s biggest bat migration.
Lake Agro Industries first cleared 560 ha of area in the south west corner of Kafinda GMA in 2019.
The clearing was briefly stopped in August 2019 by an order from the Department of Forestry.
However, the clearing was resumed in September.
A second order to stop the work was issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Arts in November 2019.
But it was ignored and Lake Agro Industries proceeded to plant soybean and maize into three of the seven clearings made in the 560 hectare-area.
A third stop order was issued in March 2020 by DNPW and the farm was closed.
In the same month, DNPW gave permission to Lake Agro to harvest their crops and then stop any further activities.
This agreement was ignored and the clearing of land continued.
In May 2021, Lake Agro submitted an Environmental and Social Impact Statement to the Zambian Environmental Management Agency.
They requested permission for an integrated farming project over 3,000 hectares of arable land plus associated infrastructure, within the protected Kafinda Game Management Area and less than three kilometres from the Kasanka National Park.
The company has also requested to take water from the Luwombwa river, which flows into the west of the park.
In July 2021, DNPW issued a fourth stop order, allowing Lake Agro Industries to farm the cleared 560 hectares but to get the relevant water abstraction permits from WARMA and prohibiting any further clearance.
Where injunctions, court orders and restraints are challenged and ignored is a sign of governance failure. This was common with PF regime encouraged and fed by stinking corruption.
It has taken time, but it needed a new government and newly appointed judiciary to overrule the decisions from the corrupt PF government and its associated judges. Hey Edgar China Lungu, are you ashamed of ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL??? Probably not
The ban should be permanent.
I bet money kept changing hands! Ahh, how did we get to this? Unbelievable. KK must have gone to rest with a lot of misgivings, seeing all this plunder, corruption, ubomba mwibala alya mwibala. Gang of thieves!
Let minister of tourism come in with an SI that will permanently ban all activities in national parks including lower zambezi.
@ No Corruption Zambia
Please find something meaningful to do with your life instead of spending hours on Lusaka Times…get a life buddy….Lungu has enough investments tucked away….so just worry about your sorry assss
Only in Zambia do we let foreigners and the rich come to chop down trees in protected areas even worse fence govt forests when there is thousands of arable land elsewhere.
#6Â Â SaulosiÂ
March 8, 2022 At 5:20 pm
” @ No Corruption Zambia
Please find something meaningful to do with your life instead of spending hours on Lusaka Times…get a life buddy….Lungu has enough investments tucked away….so just worry about your sorry asss..”
you must have been a direct beneficiary of the corrupt thieving moron lawyer lungu……
I bet lungu will never ever give an interview or write any book because only corruption will come out………..
And lungu will be striped of any investments , if not by this GRZ it will be the next one to do it………
@Saulosi shame on you, in case you lack any, moral decay’ is the decline or fall of the moral values among citizens. That is what summarise Lungu’s legacy, is he going to enjoy his loot? Let’s wait and see, meanwhile UK Ministers say they want to tackle the tangle of secrecy and deception that has long surrounded money stripped out of overseas economies and poured into British property, assets and banks, and thereby smooth the way for even harsher action against people linked to the Russian government.
Lungu was hopeless but HH needs to show how different he is.
Can you imagine if PF continued for 5 more years …lunatic Mumbi Phiri was right
W are our own worst enemy? Is this PF again? I think these PF chaps really hated Zambia. Never again should we ever allow this stuff to occur again.
So the courts protects a small park that has the biggest source of rabies and covid 19 carrying bats, but allows lower zambezi park to be mined and destroyed by mining chemicals .
#7 Tarino Orange. Foreigners have better rights here than the locals. I’m afraid this won’t end any time soon.
#13 Cosmos… depending on the size of the bribe.
Copy the name of the bat, Google it, read the Wikipedia article and realize just how endangered these mammals are.
If the government reluctance to halt mining in the LZNP is anything to do by (and yes, HH HAS executive authority to halt the mining there) this case will proceed to appeals, and if they happen to win the case, then we say goodbye to a whole species.
Also, very annoying to see injunctions being given and ignored. Land was also cleared prior to ZEMA approval. Mu Zambia chabe.
What kind of madness is this, humans may be the most advanced species on Earth, but we are not alone and must respect our impact on other plants, animals and the environment too!!
Let those farmers, agro investors, whatever, seek land elsewhere…