By Aldridge Dzvene
The future of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique-Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area (ZIMOZA TFCA) may ultimately be determined not by wildlife numbers, conservation policies, or donor funding, but by whether communities living within the landscape experience meaningful improvements in their daily lives.
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Book NowThat reality emerged strongly from the Joint Communiqué of the Trilateral Committee of Senior Officials meeting held in Harare on 29 May 2026, where Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia reaffirmed their commitment to advancing the transboundary conservation initiative established through a Memorandum of Agreement signed by the three Heads of State in July 2024.
While conservation areas have traditionally been viewed through the lens of biodiversity protection, the discussions surrounding ZIMOZA reveal a significant evolution in thinking. The emphasis is no longer solely on protecting wildlife and ecosystems. Instead, the focus is increasingly shifting towards creating an economic model in which conservation becomes a catalyst for development, livelihoods, and regional integration.
The communiqué repeatedly places communities at the centre of the initiative. This is no coincidence. Across Africa, conservation efforts have often struggled when local populations perceived protected areas as benefiting governments, tourists, or international organisations while offering little value to residents who live alongside wildlife. The ZIMOZA partners appear determined to avoid that trap.
By emphasising community participation in planning and decision-making, the three countries are acknowledging a fundamental principle of sustainable conservation: people protect what benefits them. When communities derive economic opportunities from tourism, conservation enterprises, and natural resource management, they become active custodians rather than reluctant observers.
The significance of this approach becomes clearer when examining the realities of the ZIMOZA landscape. Stretching across vast rural areas of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia, the conservation area encompasses communities whose livelihoods are often vulnerable to climate shocks, limited economic opportunities, and human-wildlife conflict.
For these communities, conservation cannot simply be about preserving biodiversity. It must also create jobs, support local enterprises, strengthen infrastructure, and improve household incomes.
This explains why the communiqué places strong emphasis on nature-based economic opportunities. Across the world, nature-based economies are increasingly being recognised as major drivers of sustainable growth. These economies generate value from tourism, ecosystem services, wildlife management, sustainable agriculture, forestry, and conservation-linked enterprises.
The establishment of a dedicated Tourism Working Group is therefore one of the most significant outcomes of the meeting. Tourism remains one of Southern Africa’s most powerful economic sectors, with the potential to generate employment across accommodation, transport, hospitality, crafts, guiding services, and community enterprises. The mandate given to the group to develop tourism products, improve destination marketing, coordinate investments, and enhance visitor management suggests that the partner states are seeking to unlock the commercial value of the conservation landscape.
If successfully implemented, the ZIMOZA TFCA could emerge as a regional tourism corridor connecting attractions across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia, attracting both domestic and international visitors while stimulating local economic growth.
The development potential extends beyond tourism. The communiqué highlights the mobilisation of €4 million through the EU-Nature Africa initiative to support conservation efforts, green economy initiatives, and governance structures within the TFCA. This funding demonstrates growing international confidence in the project’s potential to simultaneously advance environmental and socio-economic objectives.
Yet perhaps the most consequential decision taken at the meeting was the establishment of a Community Development Working Group. While conservation and tourism initiatives often receive significant attention, community development structures have historically been less robust. By creating a specialised platform dedicated to ensuring meaningful community participation, the trilateral committee has effectively institutionalised community representation within the governance architecture of the TFCA.
This is a strategic shift with far-reaching implications.
Historically, many conservation initiatives have encountered resistance because communities were consulted only after major decisions had already been made. The new framework creates an opportunity for communities to influence planning from the outset, potentially reducing conflicts and improving the sustainability of projects.
The communiqué also recognises the challenge of human-wildlife conflict, a persistent issue across many conservation landscapes in Southern Africa. Crop destruction, livestock losses, and threats to human safety can undermine community support for conservation programmes.
By prioritising coexistence mechanisms between people and wildlife, the partner states are acknowledging that successful conservation requires balancing ecological objectives with human welfare. Communities are unlikely to support conservation if they bear disproportionate costs without receiving corresponding benefits.
Equally important is the development of the Integrated Development Plan, expected to be completed by November 2026. The committee described this document as fundamental for coordinated planning and implementation. In practical terms, the plan will likely become the blueprint that determines whether conservation, tourism, infrastructure development, community empowerment, and financing mechanisms work together as a coherent system rather than as isolated initiatives.
The establishment of five specialised working groups covering conservation, community development, tourism, safety and security, and sustainable financing signals that ZIMOZA is entering a more operational phase. Rather than focusing solely on agreements and declarations, the initiative is now building the institutional machinery required for implementation.
This transition from policy to execution is perhaps the most important development emerging from the Harare meeting.
For Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia, the challenge now is to ensure that the commitments contained in the communiqué translate into measurable outcomes on the ground.
Communities will ultimately judge the success of ZIMOZA not by the number of meetings held, working groups established, or policies adopted. They will judge it by whether conservation improves livelihoods, creates opportunities for young people, attracts investment, reduces human-wildlife conflict, and contributes to long-term prosperity.
If the initiative succeeds in delivering these outcomes, ZIMOZA could become one of Southern Africa’s most compelling examples of how conservation landscapes can simultaneously protect biodiversity, strengthen regional cooperation, and drive inclusive economic transformation.
The communiqué suggests that the partner states understand this reality. The next phase will determine whether that understanding can be translated into meaningful development for the communities that stand at the heart of the ZIMOZA vision.
