By: Katherine Johnston, Communications Manager, Save the Rhino International Photos: Tristan Vince
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chool pupil Emmanuel is dressed up as a wildlife ranger, wearing camouflage trousers and an oversized jacket. In one hand he’s holding an old defunct radio, long-since upgraded, and in the other a ‘spotter sheet’, where he and his classmates can record all the animals, trees and plants they’ve seen on their first ever trip to North Luangwa National Park. Emmanuel’s three-day visit to North Luangwa is the highlight of an award-winning education project, Lolesha Luangwa – meaning ‘Look after Luangwa’ in Bemba, the local language spoken in this region of Zambia. The project works with children aged 11 to 14, living near the borders of North Luangwa National Park. They are here with their teacher, Mary, and are hosted by Conservation Education Officers Michael Eliko and Cephas Chota, who are employees of North Luangwa Conservation Project, the partnership between Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Zambian Department of National Parks & Wildlife who protect the park.
EDUCATION AGAINST EXTINCTION In Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park, local children are learning to love rhinos
As part of the Lolesha Luangwa programme, children are taught a curriculum of conservation education at school, with support from Michael and Cephas who visit with laptops and projectors to give fun-filled interactive lessons. The curriculum covers a whole host of important conservation topics with immediate relevance to North Luangwa. Lessons focus on water hygiene, sustainable forestry, which types of snakes are dangerous or harmless, safe ways to fish and many, many more. Beyond the practical, children are also taught an appreciation of the wider ecosystem and how each individual animal or plant TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
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