Reuters AlertNet Lite - Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls could go on UN worry list

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls could go on UN worry list

06 Dec 2006 10:56:24 GMT
Source: Reuters

HARARE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's premier tourist destination, Victoria Falls, could be listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO because it is not being properly managed, official media reported on Wednesday.

The Victoria Falls, one of the world's natural wonders and a top attraction for tourists, is at the centre of a control dispute between the country's museums and monuments department and the national parks authority.

The two are also fighting over revenues, which has left the Falls without a proper management plan and has led the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to threaten to put it on the endangered sites list.

"UNESCO thinks we have failed to manage the Victoria Falls as a universal site," Pascal Taruvinga, a director at National Museums and Monuments, was quoted as saying by the Herald newspaper.

If there is no "integrated management plan" to run it, "it is going to be on the endangered list, which is a very serious issue", Traude Rogers, another senior official from the monuments department, said.

UNESCO officials would not comment on Wednesday.

The Victoria Falls separates Zimbabwe and Zambia, but the greater part is on the Zimbabwean side. Environmental groups have criticised Zambia for approving the building of hotels near the Falls, but there has been no public comment on that from UNESCO.

Even the attraction of the Victoria Falls has failed to reverse the fortunes of a tourism industry hit hard by an unprecedented economic crisis largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's government's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

Western visitors, who have traditionally topped arrival numbers, have shunned the southern African state mostly over safety fears following the often violent land grabs.

Earnings from the industry plunged by more than 70 percent to $98 million last year from $340 million in 1999, just before the land reforms started.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• Zambia profile
· View map

• Zimbabwe profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• Its A Decade of Love and Care for Siphile Makore
IFRC - Switzerland

• Zambia : International Federation signs a Water facility agreement with the EU
IFRC - Switzerland

• The Red Cross launches $50 million appeal to massively scale up its HIV and AIDS response in Zambia
IFRC - Switzerland

• Impossible to fight the HIV virus without good food, warns CARE International
CARE International - UK

• On World AIDS Day, Mercy Corps says "Prevention is Power"
Mercy Corps

MORE >>

Latest news

• Patients suffer as Zimbabwe doctors strike

• Zimbabwe welcomes rains but floods threaten harvest

• ZAMBIA: IMF levy proposal rouses ire of taxpayers

• Agricultural season underway

• Farming intensifies with widespread rains

MORE >>

Last updated:Thu Jan 4 13:18:13 2007