Conservationists warn of impact on world’s largest mammal migration, key to seed dispersal across Africa
Plans to create a huge commercial farm next to a national park in Zambia could have a “catastrophic” impact on wildlife, conservationists have warned, threatening vital habitat for bats undertaking the world’s biggest mammal migration.
Every October, about 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on the evergreen swamps of Kasanka national park in central Zambia from across Africa, feasting on figs and fruit and berries in the surrounding area, and dispersing seeds across the continent in their epic journey. The park is home to 479 bird species and 114 mammals.
But the clouds of flying mammals that fill the sky could disappear entirely, park officials have warned, if proposals for wheat, soya and maize farming over 7,000 hectares (17,500 acres) in the buffer zone surrounding the protected area are given approval.
Lake Agro, owned by a Tanzanian conglomerate, has put forward plans to establish the farming operation roughly two miles (3km) from the national park’s borders, which would mean clearing thousands of hectares of pristine habitat and drawing on water from the nearby Luwombwa River.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...reat-to-zambian-park-vital-for-fruit-bats-aoe
Plans to create a huge commercial farm next to a national park in Zambia could have a “catastrophic” impact on wildlife, conservationists have warned, threatening vital habitat for bats undertaking the world’s biggest mammal migration.
Every October, about 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on the evergreen swamps of Kasanka national park in central Zambia from across Africa, feasting on figs and fruit and berries in the surrounding area, and dispersing seeds across the continent in their epic journey. The park is home to 479 bird species and 114 mammals.
But the clouds of flying mammals that fill the sky could disappear entirely, park officials have warned, if proposals for wheat, soya and maize farming over 7,000 hectares (17,500 acres) in the buffer zone surrounding the protected area are given approval.
Lake Agro, owned by a Tanzanian conglomerate, has put forward plans to establish the farming operation roughly two miles (3km) from the national park’s borders, which would mean clearing thousands of hectares of pristine habitat and drawing on water from the nearby Luwombwa River.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...reat-to-zambian-park-vital-for-fruit-bats-aoe