Latest News from the Kasanka Trust
With Bat Season 2020 now here, the Kasanka Trust announced the first bats arrived on 28 September – two to three weeks earlier than usual. There are now millions of bats residing in the park and the Trust has been working hard with the local communities to fight off illegal commercial agriculture activities to secure the ecosystem integrity of the Kasanka landscape.
Five New Community Forest Management Areas Established
The Trust has empowered local communities to manage and protect their forests though the establishment of five new Community Forest Management Areas – covering 60,000ha. In July 2019 the Department of Forestry and the Trust found excavators and bulldozers demolishing pristine miombo woodland at a rate of 8 ha per day. This was taking place in a remote area of the Kafinda Game Management Area (GMA), south-west of the national park.
Within a few months, 560 ha had been cleared for an irrigation project. The company behind this destruction planned to irrigate the land using water taken directly from the Luwombwa River – the main artery flowing through the park. This was going to reduce the river to a trickle, as they were planning to take about 90% of the river’s water during the dry season, killing the river downstream and the park’s wildlife along with it. As the migrating bats feed in the park’s surrounding GMAs, it would also mean the end of the world’s largest wildlife migration.
The Trust decided that the answer to stop the bulldozers was to assist their local communities to establish new Community Forest Management areas, covering a massive 60,000 ha. Five of these areas border onto the park, therefore forming an barrier against this illegal agricultural destruction. A further two areas are located on the eastern boundary of Lavushi Manada National Park and are vital in playing a vital role in protecting the headwaters of the Lukulu River – the lifeline of the Bangweulu Wetlands RAMSAR site.
During the course of trying to assist the communities, the park’s staff have received anonymous and threatening phone calls whilst local Community Forest Guards have been physically assaulted. This has only increased local opposition to the illegal destruction of their forests in the Kafinda GMA.
New Pontoon in the National Park
The Luwombwa River bisects the national park. For years there has been unreliable vehicle access the river, restricting the Trust’s ability to manage the wooded area in the west of the park. Scout patrols have revealed that low numbers of large mammals, such as buffalo and the majestic Sable antelope, still inhabit this virtually inaccessible area. The park’s small but growing elephant population also regularly wanders through the woodlands searching for fruit bearing trees.
With the support of the World Land Trust, a new pontoon has been launched that will enable vehicles to cross the river year-round, opening up a new conservation frontier. For the first time the Trust will be able to protect this 10,200 ha woodland.
Further west, beyond the western boundary of the park, lies a vast tract of more than 50,000 ha of intact miombo woodland, leading up to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Here, the Trust and the World Land Trust have been working alongside local communities to establish two large Community Forest Management Areas – covering 13,600 ha. Ultimately they goal is to project the whole area, creating a wildlife corridor with the Demalisques de Leshwe Reserve, in the neighbouring DRC.
To be able to project these wild areas will require a significant increase in the number of boots on the ground. So 20 new Community Scouts, including six women, are currently undergoing the Basic Field Ranger Training course at Chunga – funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once trained, these new Community Scouts will join the team on the ground to protect this new wild west frontier.
Find More News in their Latest Newsletter
To read more news from the Kasanka Trust – including updates on mammal counts, new bee keeping activities and how their staff prepared for the busy bat season, you can find their newsletters here
If you would like to visit the park and witness the amazing bat migration spectacle, then check out their website for more information – www.kasankatrust.org