Law Enforcement and Empowerment

IN the KAfue NATIONAL PARK

Author: Ulrica Hansson Photos: Game Rangers International

Orphan Elephant Mphamvu receiving milk bottle from keeper James

Vast, enigmatic and teeming with life, the Kafue National Park remained largely unexplored for a long time. In recent years however, new lodges and safari operators have attracted increasing numbers of travellers to Zambia’s oldest and largest national park, which is home to a wide variety of wildlife. Elephant, leopard, more species of antelope than in any other African park, wild dog, hippo, crocodiles, lions and the elusive cheetah are only a few of the species populating this vast protected area.

Sadly, like in so many other national parks on the African continent, Kafue National Park is facing a number of threats. Poaching for ivory is a wellknown, global wildlife crime, driven by a high demand for ivory mainly in the Far East. A less wellknown but equally destructive form of poaching is the one for bush meat, which is decimating wildlife populations all over Zambia and the rest of Africa. Human-wildlife conflicts arise when human populations spread out and encroach on areas previously occupied by wildlife. Elephants raiding crops, destroying livelihoods and sometimes killing people, is a problem shared by the communities around Kafue National Park.

These problems have multiple causes, and addressing them requires the participation by the communities around the Park. This is the rationale behind the Game Rangers International (GRI) – Kafue Conservation Project (KCP), which is taking a holistic approach to conservation, believing that successful conservation only happens if local people and communities are able to experience the benefits of wildlife and healthy eco-systems. KCP is working with conservation on multiple levels, through support to law-enforcement, community outreach, education, research and park maintenance.

To curb the poaching threat in Kafue National Park, KCP is working alongside the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW, formerly ZAWA) to support and empower anti-poaching units. Through training, equipment and operational support, these units are better equipped to confront wildlife criminals. KCP is supporting DNPW’s Special Anti-Poaching Unit (SAPU) as well as a number of regional Anti-Poaching Units (APU’s).

SAPU is an intelligence-led Law Enforcement Unit with the objective of eliminating poaching hotspots as well as of disrupting illegal wildlife trade routes. SAPU works closely with GRI - Wildlife Crime Prevention Project, based in Lusaka. SAPU’s operates across the entire Park and all the neighbouring Game Management Area’s. SAPU can also act as a “Strike Force” to DNPW’s Intelligence and Investigations Unit. SAPU’s day-to-day anti-poaching operations are commanded and coordinated by DNPW officers, Opposite: SAPU on Anti-poaching patrols

and are overseen by the DNPW Senior Warden for Kafue National Park. KCP also supports three regional Anti-Poaching Units; the Busanga APU in the north, the Nkala APU in the south of the park and a Marine Unit, which supports anti-poaching activities on Lake Itezhi-Tezhi.

“These law-enforcement units are proving to be highly effective in countering the threat to the wildlife. In 2015 they arrested 200 poachers, seized over 130 firearms, recovered almost 300 snares and over 6 tonnes of bushmeat. Not only does KCP wish to counter the threat to the wildlife of the Park, but it wants to send a clear message that poachers run a very high risk of being apprehended and prosecuted,” says Ian Hoad, Project Manager for KCP.

But anti-poaching starts far away from boots, patrols and command centers. There is strong evidence that the depletion of natural resources can be halted and even reversed if local communities see the economic and social value of wildlife. KCP is therefore investing heavily in its Community Outreach and Education programme, which seeks to empower the communities living adjacent to Kafue National Park to improve their health and wellbeing through sustainable natural resource management.

Targeting health, education, food security, sustainable livelihoods and human-elephant conflict in these rural communities, the programme aims to achieve both development and conservation outcomes in close collaboration with NPW. Amongst other things, KCP has constructed and equipped a Maternal Health Clinic in Basanga, established income generating projects through women’s empowerment groups and constructed elephant-safe granary stores. They also deliver environmental education to 22 remote schools in the area and run a popular conservation themed radio show on ITT FM, which reaches 30,000 listeners every week.

“By forging strong relationships, offering sustainable livelihoods solutions and highlighting the value of natural resources, we’ve empowered the local community to become guardians of Kafue National Park. The Community Outreach and Education programme fosters a sense of responsibility, pride and purpose, which has lead to fishermen reporting gunshots, radio show listeners calling in to inform us of possible elephant orphan sightings, and children committing to stop eating bush meat” says Jeni Jack, Technical Advisor for KCP’s Outreach and Education.

Kafue National Park not only contains a diversity of wildlife, it is also an important cultural resource that provides opportunities for tourism, research and socio-economic well-being for the surrounding local communities and Zambia as a whole. With holistic and sustainable efforts, the wildlife in the Park has the chance to survive and to be a source of joy and pride for future generations.

“But anti-poaching starts far away from boots, patrols and command centers”

For more information about Game Rangers International’s projects and how you can support them, please visit www.gamerangersinternational.org TL Z

Art class in Mukambi Community School

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