Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ), along with WWF, WCP and many other stakeholders are asking for your help. Together they have launched a campaign to stop a proposed large scale open-pit copper mine, whose location would be inside the gazetted Lower Zambezi National Park.
This campaign is in response to the issuance of a letter from the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) to approve the controversial environmental impact statement. An open-pit mine of this scale would permanently destroy the habitat within the Lower Zambezi National Park, which is a shared resource that contributes to the economic, environmental and social development in Zambia and the region.
They are asking for your help by signing the petition and to join their movement to stop this mine from going forward. You can find out more information on how the proposed mine will have detrimental effects on the park, its wildlife and local communities at – Save Zambezi, Safe Zambezi Facebook page
Update on local female business entrepreneurs
The Mazai Women’s Group has now set up their chicken coop to raise chickens. This is a small scale business for women in the Luangwa community. Through this programme, the local women are able to access increased leadership opportunities and decision-making powers, which will lead to positive outcomes for their families, the community and their environment.
CLZ thanked Stop Poaching Now and The Frog Crossing Foundation for funding this programme.
CLZ’s education programmes & COVID-19
Our regions third wave of COVID-19 is by far the worst since the outbreak began early last year, with unprecedented increases in cases, hospitalisations and deaths. This wave is having many negative consequences for the whole country, as well as CLZ and DNPW operations.
CLZ’s has decided to place their Environmental Education Programme on hold following the closure of Zambia’s schools. They have said they will continue to provide emergency support to affected rural communities during this difficult and challenging time.
Find out more
You can find out more about CLZ’s projects and read all their latest news in their newsletters and on their Facebook Page
Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) have just published their latest newsletter. The impacts of COVID-19 on their local communities have made them realise that they are needing to increase their community support – both in the short term for immediate effects and in the long term for the ongoing conservation of their region.
Human/Wildlife conflict – news and activities
“It’s often felt strange having ‘conflict’ in our name when we’re promoting peace and finding ways for both people and wildlife to thrive.”
CSL have decided to rebrand to the more appropriate and holistic ‘CSL Community‘. This will still include all their existing human/wildlife conflict (HWC) mitigation work, such as chilli farming, door-to-door sensitisation trips and the SMART conflict database. They will also be continuing their conservation game drives and weekly local radio conservation shows, as well as expanding their activities.
HWC increases in South Luangwa every year, mainly due to a rapidly increasing human population around the park, which has no land-use plan. Recently, because of the current pandemic, the number of farmers has doubled due to more people having to turn to farming to survive. Elephants are a key conflict species, as they leave the park at dusk to raid farmer’s highly nutritious crops. Lions are another conflict species. They have been increasingly attacking livestock. This has been attributed to changes in livestock-keeping practices, rather than an upturn in local lion populations. So, you might be wondering, why bother assisting with human/wildlife conflict?
“Not only does HWC affect thousands of livelihoods and have a serious local economic impact, there is also the fear and mental burden for people living alongside dangerous game on a daily basis. Long term and sustainable conservation success really depends on community ownership and support. It is human nature to only protect what we value or love.”
A bumper maize harvest in Kakumbi chiefdom
This is why CSL employs many of their HWC team members from within the chiefdoms where they operate. With resources being tight and daily conflicts in five chiefdoms, their team of eight, plus two office based staff, are spread extremely thin on the ground. However, with determination and ambition they are making strides in the right direction. To greatly assist their team, CLS has purchased their first Toyota Land Cruiser which is solely dedicated to HWC mitigation work. This new vehicle will be used alongside a newly formed HWC Rapid Reaction Unit (RRU) – their core function will be to react to life and livelihood threatening HWC emergencies.
CLS will be expanding their network of HWC volunteers to include Mwanya Chiefdom. They will also launch a new large scale trial in Kakumbi. Working with farmers, they aim to find the best, and most cost-effective, fence mitigation for reducing conflict with elephants in the existing farm blocks. A ‘smelly fence’, developed by WildAid in Uganda, will be part of their trials. This ‘smelly fence’ is made by cooking up a mixture of ginger, chilli, elephant dung, garlic and neem, then fermenting this lovely smelling concoction with eggs. The resulting smell is so bad that it does deter elephants!
Living with wildlife – Biodiversity Monitoring Trial
You might have heard about game drives and the ‘clean sweeps’ that were introduced last year to help support the Mfuwe community when tourism came to a standstill. At the same time, CSL secured funding from the Lion Recovery Fund to start an innovative new scheme inspired by the Ruaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania. This aims to encourage ownership and protection of biodiversity by linking tangible benefits to villages in high conflict areas.
By utilising sand plots, along with training from the Zambian Carnivore Programme’s research team, members of the community monitored species richness and abundance found in their villages. This was run as a competition, with points being awarded based on the number and type of species found – three villages with the richest biodiversity win prizes.
Some selected maize meal, whilst others wanted to see more long-term benefits, and so chose building materials to improve their shared livestock enclosure. Another settled on new pots, pans and dishes for every household. They are now entering the last three month trial phase and more updates will be shared later in the year.
Photos showing a prize giving celebration held in April, with the joint team from CSL/ZCP/DNPW
Implementation took time, mainly due to community buy-in, as support from the start was essential. Working through a community co-operative they built partnerships with eight villages and opened a dialogue to find solutions which will enable both people and wildlife to thrive.
‘Tiyende pamodzi ndim’tima umodzi’ – ‘Let’s walk together with one heart’
Dr Kenneth David Kaunda, also known as ‘KK’, served as Zambia’s first Republican President from 1964 to 1991. He was known for his love of wildlife and conservation, with a passion for heritage preservation.
As our Country grieves for the father of our nation, our thoughts are with his family.
The Kasanka Trust, who works closely with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, have set up an online petition and are now asking everyone who cares about the future of Zambian wildlife, to support their campaign.
The Trust has submitted a statement to the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) urging them to refuse permission for a proposed commercial agriculture development that would severely impact on the integrity of the park’s ecosystems if it were to go ahead. Whilst ZEMA make their decision, the fate of the park, its wildlife and the surrounding communities that depend on it, hangs in the balance.
More threats to the park and Game Management Area
Meanwhile, the Zambian Ministry of Energy has signed an implementation agreement to build Zambia’s first wind energy plant. Although renewable energies are good news, the proposed location of this new wind farm is directly in the flightpath of Kasanka’s internationally important migratory colony of straw-coloured fruit bats. This now poses a severe threat to the bat population.
Every year, Kasanka National Park is visited by about ten million straw-coloured fruit bats, who migrate to the wetlands in the park. Their visit is not only a globally significant biological spectacle that draws in tourists which helps to underpin the fastest growing economic sector in Zambia, but the bats feeding habits are vital to the health of the flora and therefore the livelihoods of local farmers, in the areas surrounding the park.
The migrating bats make nightly foraging excursions, not only into the GMA, but often as far as Pensulo, approximately 50km south-southeast of the park – this is the proposed location for a new Pensulo Wind Farm. Commuting straw-coloured fruit bats fly at heights making them extremely vulnerable to collision with wind turbines. Global research has shown that wind turbines pose one of the largest threats to bat populations worldwide, documenting mass mortality of bats at wind energy plants.
The habitat immediately surrounding the Park, is a designated Game Management Area (GMA), called Kafinda GMA. This is now being illegally deforested by Lake Agro Industries, a subsidiary of the Tanzanian owned company – Lake Group. They also propose to abstract significant amounts of water from the Luwombwa River. This river feeds the park’s ecosystem as well as supporting the livelihoods of many local communities. Another subsidiary of Lake Group – Gulf Adventures – has already occupied 5,000ha of the GMA, even encroaching into the National Park, introducing non-native wildlife species into the area.
These developments pose a major threat to Kasanka National Park and the world’s largest concentration of mammals. The proposed new developments not only threaten our tourism industry, but have far reaching ecological consequences across the region and well into Central Africa, as these migrating fruit bats are critical for seed dispersal and reforestation.
How the Trust assists the local communities
The Kasanka Trust works closely with local farmers in the Kafinda GMA, implementing sustainable and efficient Climate-Smart farming techniques and livelihoods, reaching over 22,000 people in 2020. In addition, the Trust supports 20 local schools with their environmental education programmes, having built teacher’s housing and over the years, sponsored 180 young people through their schooling projects – seven have gone on to obtain bachelor degrees, whilst three more now have teaching diplomas. Without the Trust, none of these farmers or young people would receive any additional support.
The Trust’s aim is to provide long-term sustainable solutions to continue to support the local community, working in harmony to protect Zambia’s natural resources. These efforts would be severely compromised by the effects of these harmful developments.
They are now asking for your help
Following their recent campaign – Proposed World Heritage Site under threat – the Kasanka Trust has submitted an objection to Lake Agro Industries’ application, supported by over 40 organisations from Zambia and beyond, representing the tourism industry, community groups, conservation NGOs, researchers and filmmakers. They are also aware of over 500 separate representations made directly to ZEMA by organisations and members of the public.
But they are not stopping there! The Trust is now urging the Zambian Government to resist all development that threatens Kasanka National Park, its wildlife and the surrounding communities. Positive development, which brings food security, jobs and renewable energy to the Zambian people should be encouraged, but only in appropriate locations where negative impacts on the environment and local communities, do not outweigh the benefits.
Visit their Facebook Page and share the news as widely as possible and encourage others to join in
If you have any spare funds, then please make a donation – even a small amount can help the non-profit making Trust to cover their expenses for their much needed media campaign, to help local stakeholders to have a voice and to obtain legal representation if and when needed.
Zambia’s national parks should receive the highest level of protection because of their unique flora and fauna and Kasanka National Park is no exception. You can find out more at www.kasanka.com
Today, Tuesday 29 June is the International Day of the Tropics which celebrates the extraordinary biodiversity of the tropics whilst raising awareness and highlighting the challenges and opportunities which tropical nations face. This dedicated day provides an opportunity to take stock of progress across the tropics, to share stories and expertise, and to acknowledge the diversity and potential of the region.
The tropics ecosystem
The Tropics are the region of the Earth, roughly defined as the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. They account for 36% of the Earth’s landmass, including the Equator and parts of North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. This tropical region is typically warm all year round, experiencing little seasonal change in day-to-day temperatures, having two seasons: the wet season and the dry season.
An important feature of the Tropics is the prevalence of rain in the humid regions near the equator. The seasonality of rainfall increases with the distance from the equator. So, regions of the Tropics, such as the Amazon Basin, receive about 274cms of rain per year, whilst other regions, like the Sahara Desert, receive only 2 to 10cms each year. These differences in precipitation affects which flora and animals live in the different tropical regions.
The challenges faced in the tropics
Currently, about 40% of the world’s population lives within the tropical zone. It is estimated that by 2050, the tropics region will be home to most of the world’s people, with two-thirds of its children. These regions typically have higher levels of poverty, with more people experiencing undernourishment than in the rest of the world.
The tropics are important because of the number of economic exports that come from these regions. The biodiversity is also far greater in the Tropics, with its loss also being far faster than in the rest of the world, threatening many species. This loss is attributed to climate change as well as human activities such as deforestation of forests and marine ecosystems, the spread of invasive species, overexploitation of industrial fishing, urbanisation and demographic changes.
How you can join in
Normally, on this day, conservation organisations and groups for the Tropics would hold informational seminars, workshops, and presentations, but this is not possible this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So instead, the United Nations is holding a webinar – International Day of the Tropics and State of the Tropics Report Launch. Experts from around the world will be discussing the ‘digital divide’, and the impact of communication technology on our daily lives, business and education.
“More than three billion people, almost half the world’s population, are not online and most of those who are on the wrong side of the digital divide live in the tropical regions of the world. This event will launch a new State of the Tropics focus report which shines a spotlight on the extent and impact of the digital divide in the Tropics, in education, business and at home.“
You can join experts from around the world for a conversation about this digital divide in their webinar or find our more on their Facebook Page. You can also follow on Twitter at #WeAreTheTropics and #TropicsDay
Or, why not go post your favourite photos of Zambia’s amazing biodiversity on social media, and share with #InternationalDayOfTheTropics so that people from other countries can learn about our special and unique tropical biodiversity.
