Five countries in Southern Africa have agreed to expand the use of a special common visa to facilitate tourist movement as part of efforts to increase arrivals in the region.
Officials from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, which comprise the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, have agreed in principle to extend the use of the special visa, known as a univisa, which allows entry into multiple countries.
Currently, the univisa is used in Zambia and Zimbabwe and covers day trips to Botswana via Kazungula.
During a KAZA heads of state summit in Livingstone, Zambia, regional leaders expressed their intention to extend the special visa to other states within the conservation area as well as the broader southern African economic bloc.
“We must simply say that this will happen,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema stated in his address. “I am grateful that my colleagues have reached consensus on the univisa.”
Botswana Vice President Slumber Tsogwane confirmed his country’s commitment to fully adopt the univisa.
Additionally, KAZA member states resolved to advocate for the lifting of the ban on the trade of elephants and ivory by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
CITES, an inter-governmental body with 184 members, regulates wildlife trade to protect certain species from over-exploitation and banned the trade of African elephant ivory in 1989 after a significant population decline in the previous decade.
KAZA states claim to possess $1 billion worth of ivory stockpiles, which they seek to trade in order to fund conservation programs.
