Title:
Porto Dobela - Proposed Deep Water Port in Southern Mozambique
Proposed by: Vance Martin
Seconded by: Andrew Muir

WHEREAS,

The Mozambican government has approved a proposal for a deep-water port to be constructed at Ponta Techobanine, immediately to the south of the 70,000 ha. Maputo Special (Elephant) Reserve (MSR) in southern Mozambique. (The concession requested is for an area of 25,000 ha., extending a considerable distance northwards as far as Ponta Milibangalala within the MSR, wherein besides the port a spectrum of light industrial, tourism and residential developments are planned.) and

Through the proposed Lubombo TFCA (a component of the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative's Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area protocols, signed by Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland in June 2000), the MSR will be linked to the Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa through the protection of the pristine and largely unpopulated Futi Corridor;

The MSR plus adjacent coastal areas from Portuguese Island southwards to Ponta do Ouro have been recommended as a proposed World Heritage Site (DNFFB/UNESCO 2000) that will link to the St Lucia Wetlands World Heritage Site.

THEREFORE, the 7^th World Wilderness Congress

Understands the need for sustainable economic planning and upliftment for local people in the area, but asserts that the jobs created by the scheme are not sustainable environmentally or economically

Recognizes that the area forms the core of the globally recognized Maputaland Centre of Plant Diversity, and is of enormous biological value, with substantial economic possibilities for local communities and the private sector in the field of ecotourism; but

Concludes that the scheme, if it goes ahead, will indisputably attract very great numbers of job-seekers for whom there will be no planning in place (and who will perforce live off the land), and that the construction of the proposed port will seriously compromise the ecological integrity of the area, as well as the objectives of the LSDI - TFCRA protocol, the TFCA Project, and any possible application for World Heritage status for the area; and hereby

RESOLVES, that

The construction of the Porto Dobela deep water port is not planned on sound scientific and sustainable development principles, likely should not have been originally authorized, and must be the subject of a thorough international EIA conducted under the auspices of an independent organization such as the IUCN, and financed by the development consortium.

Proposed by:

Vance Martin
The WILD Foundation
PO Box 1380
Ojai CA 93024 USA
info@wild.org

Seconded by:

Andrew Muir
The Wilderness Foundation
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
info@worldwilderness.org