Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini joined Southern African leaders in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Friday for the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Summit, where heads of state marked 25 years of regional environmental cooperation and agreed on measures to strengthen joint natural resource protection.
Held under the theme “Transfrontier Conservation Areas: 25 years of Cooperation for Regional Integration and Sustainable Development,” the summit brought together leaders from at least a dozen countries, including Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. The gathering was chaired by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Prime Minister Dlamini assured fellow leaders of Eswatini’s continued commitment to tackling challenges in the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (LTFCA), which the kingdom shares with Mozambique and South Africa. He said the country remains focused on climate change, land degradation, and sustainable resource management.
“Our landscapes, from the Lubombo Plateau to Malolotja, are more than scenery—they’re livelihoods,” he told the regional gathering. “Eswatini has trained communities, formed natural resource committees and enabled access to data, ensuring that conservation efforts are owned by the people.”
He also referenced progress made in aligning Eswatini’s conservation efforts with international targets such as the Paris Agreement and the AU’s Agenda 2063. Notably, Eswatini has advanced community-led tourism and climate-smart agriculture while improving employment opportunities tied to ecotourism.
The summit’s final communiqué called on SADC member states to increase participation of rural communities, particularly youth, in conservation work. Governments were also urged to adopt tailored responses to growing human-wildlife conflicts, invest in coastal and marine TFCAs, and accelerate the implementation of SADC’s anti-poaching strategy.
Leaders also praised the pilot rollout of a SADC Tourism UNIVISA in five countries, which is expected to boost intra-regional travel and promote shared ecotourism benefits.
The summit acknowledged contributions of regional conservation pioneers, including former Presidents Festus Mogae and Thabo Mbeki, and welcomed innovative funding mechanisms like carbon credits, biodiversity offsets and public-private partnerships to ensure the future of shared ecosystems.
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