The legal establishment of the reserve has been warmly welcomed by conservationists: "Eco-systems don't respect political boundaries," said Dr Deon Nel, head of the biodiversity unit at the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa.
"In order to fully conserve eco-systems we need to look beyond these boundaries to processes, like migration routes that work on a larger scale. Many of these processes are lost in national parks."
Experts have pointed out that fragile eco-systems will be more resilient to threats such as climate change if they are not fractured by political borders that prevent high-impact animals such as elephants from ranging across larger areas.
While the scientific benefits of the trans-frontier dream have long been accepted, the political agreement has been slow in arriving. The concept of a Southern African wildlife sanctuary was presented at a regional talking shop as long ago as 1993, but 10 years on Namibia's then President, Sam Nujoma, was still describing it as a "golden opportunity" that hadn't been seized.
Turning the mosaic of national parks, hunting reserves, conservation areas and rivers into a network has focused on the so-called "four corners" region: the point at which Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet, around Impalila Island in Namibia.
Angola, which early on was still emerging from a disastrous civil war, was included because of its importance as the source of most of the regions' rivers.
The treaty signed in the Angolan capital Luanda in August created a reserve roughly the size of Italy at 290,000sq km. The governments involved are primarily interested in the tourism potential of the leviathan they have created.
Namibia's Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said: "Conservation will be a vehicle for tourism, thus bringing about socio-economic development in this region."
However, much of the immense land area covered by the agreements lacks the infrastructure at present to absorb many more tourists.
Modest grants by the Dutch and German governments have helped set up an administration for Kaza with offices in Botswana, but feasibility studies have suggested that while the long-term benefits of the joint venture would be considerable, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in roads, airports, accommodation and park authorities will be necessary to realise them.
The challenges in the meantime are considerable. One of the first items on the agenda is an appeal for funds for the removal of land mines that still litter the area gazetted within Angola — a lethal hangover from the civil war.
"There's a whole lot of things that need to be happen to make this real," said Nel. "But we must start with political agreements and a legal understanding which has to be followed up with the commitment of resources from the governments involved."
NATURE'S REALM
• Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, or Kaza for short, is the world's largest conservation area.
• It straddles Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as 36 national parks.
• The area features at least 3000 species of fauna as well as more than 600 bird species across savannahs, woodlands and wetlands.
• The area covers about 290,000sq km.
• Among the natural features are the Victoria Falls and the Okavango Delta.
- INDEPENDENT
