Zambia hails cooperating partners for support in wildlife conservation

The Zambian government on Sunday commended cooperating partners over their support for the country’s efforts to conserve its wildlife.

Minister of Tourism and Arts Ronald Chitotela said the government was grateful to the cooperating partners who have shown commitment to partner in boosting the government’s conservation efforts of wildlife.

He cited the one-year agreement with the African Parks to support protection efforts on the Kafue Ecosystem, the 1.2 million Euros support by the Frankfurt Zoological Society for protection of ecosystem in the North Luangwa National Park as well as a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. government for the management of ivory stockpile as some of the efforts by the cooperating partners to support the government.

According to him, the government’s efforts to grow wildlife-based tourism as a contributor to the economy were bearing fruits as seen by the support from the international community.

The ministry, he said, was determined to invest more in efforts to fight poaching through training of more wildlife officers, adding that tourism in Africa was mainly wildlife-based hence the need to have more wildlife officers to fight poaching. Enditem