Zambia to proceed with mining project in park despite uproar

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) - Zambia said Tuesday that it will go ahead with its decision to permit mining activity in Lower Zambezi National Park despite an uproar from animal rights groups and environmental activists, who have challenged the move.

The park, located in eastern Zambia, is part of the Zambezi River Basin shared between Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“The sustainable management of this resource is crucial in securing the futures of more than 250 million people in the broader region that depend on it,” the activists said Tuesday in a joint statement.

However, Collins Nzovu, the country’s Green Economy and Environment Minister, clarified that the mining license was granted by the Patriotic Front government, which was ousted by the United Party for National Development in 2021 and all decisions taken by previous governments were binding.

“The government wishes to assure the nation that there is no cause for alarm as there is no new decision that has been made,” Nzovu said in a separate statement.

“The government is still committed to ensuring that all commitments made, including greening the economy, are adhered to in a legal manner without interfering with any institution of governance.”

Maggie Mwape, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Justice, challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to recall his past pronouncements as an opposition leader against the project in 2014 and Zambia’s domestic legislation and international treaties relevant to informing the decision on the project.

But Hichilema’s spokesman, Anthony Bwalya, said the government will guide the future of the project, whose investors already won a court battle in 2019 challenging an order against the outcome of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The EIA conducted in 2012 was rejected by authorities, but the decision was overturned by the Patriotic Front government in 2014.