Government is pitching tourism as one of the key sectors in its plan for national development. But it looks like words are sounding louder than action as the key factor of tourism, national parks, struggle for public spending
By Deogratias Mmana:
When it comes to tourism in Malawi, national parks are a premier treasure with which to charm visitors and generate the needed revenue for the country.
But for the national parks to bring in the money, government must invest in them for the facilities to be attractive.
That is not happening – which threatens the government’s idea of the Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) strategy for development.
- Advertisement -
Throughout the entire 2023-24 financial year, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) did not receive operational funding from Treasury, according to its director, Brighton Kumchedwa.
- Advertisement -
The new financial year has gotten off to a bad start already as the department has not had the Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) funding from April, when the financial year started, to June.
Kumchedwa made these revelations during a presentation of the sorry state of affairs at Kasungu National Park in the week.
“It is not Kasungu National Park only [that is struggling for government funding]. It is the entire department. Since last financial year, we have not received funding. We just got it for one month. We have gone without ORT funding and we have been relying on donors,” Kumchedwa said.
In simple terms, ORT funding finances expenses that enable a department achieve its mandate. These include purchasing fuel, stationery and airtime, conducting training for staff, paying utility bills and vehicle maintenance, among others.
- Advertisement -
Kumchedwa said the situation defeats government’s ambitious goals for Malawi to develop with tourism as one of the centerpieces of its growth agenda.
“How can we operate without government intervention? We presented our situation to the Presidential Delivery Unit,” Kumchedwa said.
Making a presentation to visiting officials from ESwatini, Botswana, South Africa and Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) countries during their visit to Kasungu National Park this week, DNPW central division manager Leonard Moyo said Kasungu National Park did not get anything from its K160 million budget.
“For this year, we were supposed to get a monthly funding of K6 million but we have not received that from April to June. We are struggling to get finances from the government,” Moyo said.
He added that Kasungu National Park has survived because of the support from international organisations like the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) which gets support from GIZ.
Until around 2015, the park was ran down after decades of government neglect which allowed encroachment and poaching to flourish.
In 2017, Ifaw and DPNW joined hands and launched a five-year Combating Wildlife Project which has seen improvement of the park.
The project undertook activities such as training of police and judiciary in wildlife crime investigation and prosecution, construction of the perimeter fence, training park staff and providing them will housing, food rations and allowances.
“This park would have closed by now if it relied on the support from the government alone,” Moyo said.
He said the park requires at least K876 million to efficiently operate in one year. At the moment, it makes only around K28 million per year as it is yet to be fully restored to what it was.
While Kasungu National Parks alone requires over K800 million in a year to function, the entire department has received less than K500 million every year in the past three financial years, according to details we have gathered.
In the 2023-24 budget, the department had an approved allocation of K352 million.
In the 2022-23 financial year, it had an approved budget of K453 million.
In the 2021-22 national budget, it had an approved allocation of K255 million.
Treasury spokesperson Williams Banda said all Ministries, Departments and Agencies are funded according to cash flow.
“The Department of National Parks, besides normal funding, manages concessions,” Banda said.
An official from GIZ, Lisa Blanken, said it is important for the government and private sector to support wildlife conservation areas.
“It is of course key that government provides funding and it is core management for both partners and the government. But what I think is very positive is that they allow partnerships. They are also employing people. It is not that they are not providing anything. There are staff around here. The major thing is business thinking. How can you get the revenue so that you get more returns in the park?”
