Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls could go on UN worry list
Source: Reuters
HARARE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's premier tourist destination, Victoria Falls, could be listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO because it is not being properly managed, official media reported on Wednesday. The Victoria Falls, one of the world's natural wonders and a top attraction for tourists, is at the centre of a control dispute between the country's museums and monuments department and the national parks authority. The two are also fighting over revenues, which has left the Falls without a proper management plan and has led the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to threaten to put it on the endangered sites list. "UNESCO thinks we have failed to manage the Victoria Falls as a universal site," Pascal Taruvinga, a director at National Museums and Monuments, was quoted as saying by the Herald newspaper. If there is no "integrated management plan" to run it, "it is going to be on the endangered list, which is a very serious issue", Traude Rogers, another senior official from the monuments department, said. UNESCO officials would not comment on Wednesday. The Victoria Falls separates Zimbabwe and Zambia, but the greater part is on the Zimbabwean side. Environmental groups have criticised Zambia for approving the building of hotels near the Falls, but there has been no public comment on that from UNESCO. Even the attraction of the Victoria Falls has failed to reverse the fortunes of a tourism industry hit hard by an unprecedented economic crisis largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's government's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Western visitors, who have traditionally topped arrival numbers, have shunned the southern African state mostly over safety fears following the often violent land grabs. Earnings from the industry plunged by more than 70 percent to $98 million last year from $340 million in 1999, just before the land reforms started.
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