Kaunda opposes mining project in Zambian park

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Kaunda opposes mining project in Zambian park

10:05 CAT | 01 Nov 2019

File photo: AFP

Zambia’s first president of the post-colonial era, Kenneth Kaunda, has opposed a large-scale copper mining project in the heart of one of the country’s biggest national parks.

In 2014, the ruling Patriotic Front gave the go-ahead for mining activities in the Lower Zambezi National Park, a move that was challenged in court by conservationists.

But last week, a High Court ruled that the open-cast copper mining project should go ahead in the park, which is located 174km (108 miles) south-east of the capital, Lusaka.

The verdict has been opposed by many, including the World Wide Fund for Nature, while an online petition has garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

In a statement, Mr Kaunda said the “the proposed mining operation in the middle of the national park poses the biggest threat in history to the wildlife and pristine wilderness that has survived so many centuries of challenges and supported generations of Zambians”.

The park, which has more than 400 bird species, covers an area of 4,092 square kilometres (1,579 sq miles) and sits opposite Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools National Park, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Source: BBC