The Cuando River Basin is one of the thirteen Sub
basins of the Zambezi Watercourse. The Cuando
River provides critical water resources to the heart of
the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation
Area (KAZA TFCA), the largest terrestrial transfrontier conservation area on the planet. The KAZA
region, where Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia,
and Zimbabwe converge is home to 2.5 million people,
shelters half of Africa’s remaining savannah elephant
population, and is critical for many other important
wildlife species. The Cuando Basin has remained
largely undeveloped, with a population of less than
200,000 people, but in recent years is seeing increasing
pressure due to climate changes and unsustainable use
of natural resources such as water, forests and land.
Without a shared transboundary vision that balances
the needs of people and the environment, these pressures could result in negative impacts to the basin
and the people who live within it. At the core of such
a shared vision is inclusive and sustainable integrated
water resource management (IWRM) and increased
water security for the benefit of people and ecosystems in the Cuando River Basin, and downstream
in the Zambezi Watercourse. Attaining the shared
vision in turn requires effective management of water
resources, transboundary water governance forums
and innovative partnerships.
The State of the Cuando River Basin Report is part
of the outputs of a larger project entitled “Transboundary Governance of the Cuando; Protecting
the Heart of Southern Africa” funded by the United
States Department of State (USDOS) and supported
by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF); the
Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM); and
the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation
Area (KAZA) Secretariat.
