North Luangwa Conservation Programme
A
Author: Claire Lewis / Photos: Frankfurt Zoological Society
s Frankfurt Zoological Society celebrates its 30th year of engagement in Zambia, Claire Lewis reflects back on its conservation work in the North Luangwa ecosystem THE LUANGWA VALLEY is the oldest section of Africa’s famous Great Rift Valley on the continent. The Luangwa River, bordering four national parks, is Africa’s longest undammed river system, and home to the world’s largest concentration of hippos. The geographic location and its associated isolation, as a result of this topography, gives rise to a unique and vast ecosystem and species diversity. The North Luangwa ecosystem (NLE), comprising the National Park of the same name and its adjacent five Game Management Areas (21,000 km2) in north-eastern Zambia, harbours significant wildlife populations, including Zambia’s only black rhinos. Since 1986, Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) has been working with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW; formerly the Zambia Wildlife Authority - ZAWA) in a partnership known as the North Luangwa Conservation Programme
12
TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
(NLCP). NLCP focuses on the implementation of conservation-based initiatives aimed at protecting the area threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, unsustainable utilisation of natural resources, and the upswing in illegal hunting for elephant ivory, rhino horn and bush meat. These initiatives aim to promote sustainable socio-economic development and protect Zambia’s natural heritage and the hook by which all activities hang is the black rhino. BLACK RHINOS historically thrived in Zambia; once home to the continent’s third largest population, numbering over 12,000. But efforts to save this charismatic and highly endangered animal through the late 1970s and early 1980s failed to stem the demand for its horn. The illegal trophy poaching decimated Zambia’s black rhino population and the species was declared nationally extinct in 1998. At the centre of conservation principles lies the philosophy that if an area can be secured for this curious pachyderm then all other co-existing natural resources can also be protected for future generations. Creating a safe environment for black rhino in Zambia became a focus of NLCP and the first of several reintroduction translocations took place in 2003, with the help of many generous donor funding partners, to form a viable founder population.
