VICTORIA FALLS

NATURE’S exhaustless generosity bestowed upon Zimbabwe, Victoria Falls, in its grand totality whose grandeur and splendour defines tourist attraction beyond mere tourism magazine hyperbole. The Victoria Falls are among the most spectacular waterfalls in the world and are undoubtedly the best
tourist attraction in Zimbabwe.
They are also one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world and the only one found in Southern Africa.

Very few destinations in Africa, and indeed the world over can offer the tourist visual delight like the Victoria Falls. The Zambezi River plunges noisily down a series of basalt gorges that are more than 2km wide at this point and raises an iridescent mist that can be seen from more than 20km away.
A series of immense cataracts where 500 000 cubic litres of water plunge — per minute — thunderously over about 1 700 metres wide cliff edge during the peak period, is a rare spectacle. Very, very, rare indeed.
It is certainly the cash cow of Zimbabwe tourism and all and sundry should understand why suddenly it has become the cynosure of the world as it prepares to co-host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation 2013 General Assembly with Livingstone in Zambia.
There is no doubt that the UNWTO family will enjoy everything including aerial excursions courtesy of the Flight of the Angels, river rides in boats, elephant rides and, of course, the Zambezi sunset cruise.
Every discerning tourist — the world over — wishes to visit the Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls National Park is umbilically attached to Zambezi National Park, upstream. The two are inseparable.
The resultant spewing mist from the gorges nurture a rainforest, a vast swathe of exquisite beauty, where ferns, sycamore figs, ebony, mahogany and palm trees flourish.
A well-manicured path meanders through the rainforest giving a view of the falls and effectively juxtaposing it with the forests, for the discerning eye.
It is fact not fiction that preservation of the rainforest is achieved to a large extend through managing activities that would impact on the flow regime of the Zambezi River system.
Management practices that would make the rainforest more resilient to current variability in climate change have not, therefore, been restricted to only the rainforest and meant an integrated approach, rather than managing the rainforest as an island.
The rainforest as part of Victoria Falls National Park should be viewed as a bigger ecosystem that cannot be managed as a discrete unit without triggering a slow but sure process of degradation.
The area was designated a national park after 1975 despite having being designated a national monument in 1972.
This was after the realisation that the rainforest is one of the only two forests in Zimbabwe with high biodiversity status species and habitats that were poorly represented in other parts of the country and face the greatest threats in terms of replacement and vulnerability.
The level of importance of the ecosystem of the Victoria Falls rainforest requires specialised conservation skill.