Vultures do not recognise borders, and neither should conservation efforts. To strengthen regional collaboration, nine conservation organisations from six southern African countries have joined forces to establish the Vulture Safe Zone Alliance (VSZA) and develop the Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) Guidelines.
A Vulture Safe Zone is an area inside or outside formal protected areas where land users, communities, conservation organisations, government agencies and other stakeholders work together to identify, address and reduce threats to vultures. VSZs can include communal land, private properties, conservancies, agricultural areas and other managed landscapes that are important for vulture feeding, breeding and movement.
Vultures can travel hundreds of kilometres in search of food and regularly cross international boundaries. With existing VSZs already covering more than two million hectares across southern Africa, the VSZA aims to connect these safe spaces and strengthen their effectiveness across the landscapes vultures depend on.
The Alliance brings together BirdLife International and partners, including BirdLife Botswana, BirdLife South Africa, BirdWatch Zambia, BirdLife Zimbabwe, Nature Tanzania and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi, alongside Raptors Botswana and the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
The newly developed VSZ Guidelines provide a common framework for identifying, establishing and monitoring VSZs, helping partners coordinate practical conservation action and create safer landscapes where vultures can move, feed and breed.
