Oxfam Southern Africa has called for the immediate stop to all mining activities or strides towards this in the Lower Zambezi National Park.Oxfam Country Representative Yvonne Chibiya says her Organisation is concerned over the ongoing and highly controversial Lower Zambezi National Park mining saga and has cautioned the Zambian government against proceeding with the project.Ms. Chibiya has warned that any disruption to this ecosystem could prove disastrous, particularly at a time when the world is battling a climate change crisis.She said the project not only goes against the Government’s pronounced commitments towards environmental sustainability but also sets negative precedent for Natural Resource Management and Environmental Protection within the New Dawn Government’s industrialization agenda.Ms. Chibiya said the Lower Zambezi National Park hosts a sensitive ecosystem sustaining a vast amount of biodiversity necessary for environmental sustainability in Zambia and some neighboring countries.She has since proposed that government Invests in expanding tourism and other productive sectors away from mining and develops a clear-cut Environmental Protection Strategy to safeguard and adequately finance environmental impact response and mitigation efforts within Zambia’s industrialization agenda.Ms. Chibiya has also noted the need to promote the autonomy of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency as a regulatory body to effectively execute their mandate of managing environmental protection by enforcing all regulations to mitigate negative environmental impacts.
