Latest News From CSL

9 July 2021 by CC Zambia in News

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.

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