Located in Zambia’s North-Western Province, the greater Kafue National Park and West Lunga ecosystem complex was once home to an abundance of ancient rosewood trees and a host of other endemic and endangered species.
Chief Ntambu, leader of the Lunda people, is leading an effort to counter deforestation, which has devastated parts of north-western Zambia. Photo credit: Georgina Smith/UNEP
Now, aerial views reveal slabs of fallen trees peppering black holes in the green forest canopy. Fenced clearings open up to piles of orange rosewood, stacked high in the grounds of a sawmill. Forest clearing is slowly destroying an ancient ecosystem that once teemed with biodiversity, from elephants to lions. Today, little more than a few antelope are left roaming the area.
On the edge of the park, in the settlement of Ntambu, is the residence of His Royal Highness Chief Ntambu, leader of the local Lunda people.
“The value of the forest is immense,” the chief explains. “Yet there are several threats of grave concern to the ecosystem, which must be tackled with community-led solutions.”
Around half of the population in the surrounding area live in extreme poverty. With few jobs, communities depend on the forest for food, fuel, and income. This combination of demands is driving deforestation, largely through forest clearing for agriculture or poaching for food and income. The West Lunga landscape is now the third-most deforested in the country.
A new project, supported in part by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is aiming to help change that. With funding from the Global Environment Facility, teams are working to expand protected areas and help local communities manage forests more sustainably.
“The harsh realities of poverty for the communities living in this area create a vicious circle where immediate needs for food and fuel aggravate the very conditions contributing to the poverty in the first place,” said Johan Robinson, a Portfolio Manager for UNEP. “This project will empower local communities to benefit from the natural resources in their care while conserving biodiversity: a win-win for everyone.”
Zambia is far from the only country struggling with deforestation and land degradation. Humanity has altered 75 percent of the Earth’s surface, and a UNEP report from 2020 found that we have lost an area of forest the size of India (420 million hectares) to land conversion in the last 30 years alone.
Community-led protection
On a bright morning in Ntambu, wildlife supervisor John Muzenzi and his team of scouts wade through long stands of savanna grass, towards a water point. They set out early to track wildlife and lay down large slabs of salt lick and animal feed while searching for signs of poaching and other illegal activity.
This is Ntambu Community Game Reserve, a community-owned and run project supported by the West Lunga Conservation Project (WLCP), that aims to provide communities around the park with affordable, legal meat and jobs, as well as the potential for future income opportunities from tourism.
There are now over 170 antelope in the 1,000-hectare fenced reserve. At school events and football matches, Muzenzi and his team educate communities to halt illegal activities because, says Muzenzi, conservation: “should begin from the community, because the community is where the poachers are coming from.”
In the last few years, through a partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), wildlife ranger and scout patrols have ramped up from 40 a year to over 40 a month, removing more than 200 firearms from poachers and clearing more than 17,000 snares from the wider West Lunga landscape.
The patrols are part of a larger effort to encourage local residents to forsake poaching and logging, said chief Ntambu.
“Social problems don’t disappear in the blink of an eye. Without properly engaging the community, taking them away from [illegal] activities won’t help us at all. We have secured opportunities in fish farming, honey making, nursing, and gardening, so that our people contribute positively to the welfare of this community.”
A sweeter future
As part of the UNEP-supported project, existing initiatives like Ntambu Community Game Reserve will be expanded to support the community and protect the park and its surrounding community-owned forests.
Managed by The Nature Conservancy and jointly implemented with the Forestry Department, in close collaboration with UNEP and partners, including the Trident Foundation, WCLP, and the World Wide Fund for Nature, the project aims to support communities to protect, sustainably manage, and equitably benefit from the natural resources in their care over the long term.
Read more...
