Education Against Extinction

In Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park, local children are learning to love rhinos

By: Katherine Johnston, Communications Manager, Save the Rhino International Photos: Tristan Vince

School 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.

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

plays its role in a delicate balance. In a set of four special rhino lessons, Michael and Cephas go into local schools and explain the history of the now Critically Endangered black rhino in North Luangwa, the threats which led to their extinction in this area, why these majestic animals were reintroduced to their habitat and how we can protect them.

Lolesha Luangwa began in 2003, to coincide with the first translocation of black rhinos to North Luangwa National Park. The conservation team in North Luangwa knew it would take more than high security and habitat protection to ensure that the species would never be poached out again, and so developed an education programme to inspire children to want to protect rhinos. Children aged 11 to 14 are old enough to understand the complex messages and to relay them back to their families and friends, creating a ripple effect across their communities to inspire them to support rhino conservation, and to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for wildlife.

The visit to the park is usually the first time any of the youngsters have been away from home. To break the ice, they all had their faces painted whilst Michael quizzed them about their chosen animals. Inside the newly refurbished Education Centre, surrounded by beautiful views, they put on plays acting out the roles of rhinos, poachers, rangers and a judge. Will the rhino be killed for its horn? Or will the ranger catch the poacher? Is the judge going to grant bail – or give a hefty sentence? Emmanuel, in his ranger kit, wasn’t going to let anyone get away with killing a rhino on his watch and neither were any of his classmates. ranger for the day, David, who was keeping an eye out for any potentially dangerous wildlife. The children ticked off all the animals and the footprints they saw, and excitedly wondered if they’d spot one of the most elusive – a black rhino.

The next morning we all piled into the Lolesha Luangwa safari truck and drove the children up to the anti-poaching Command and Control Centre. Here they met valuable role models –rangers, drivers, electricians and all the many other people who play their part in protecting North Luangwa – opening their eyes to the many job opportunities in conservation.

And to top off the whole experience, that evening, Hugo, a male black rhino, slowly made his way through the bush in search of fruit from the sausage tree on which to feed. His observers, holding up their binoculars to get a better view, weren’t the usual safari-goers; they were Emmanuel and his friends having the experience of a lifetime.

North Luangwa’s black rhino population is growing. The future of Zambia’s rhinos will one day be in the hands of children like Emmanuel, growing up in North Luangwa right now. That’s why we need to teach them about conservation, and show them wildlife at first-hand. After all, how can you love something you’ve never seen before?

“After all, how can you love something you’ve never seen before?”

It costs just £40 to take a child to North Luangwa National Park to see rhinos and meet rangers for the first time. Visit savetherhino. org to donate towards our Education Against Extinction appeal to help more children visit North Luangwa.