We are partners in the vocational re-training of those identified to be the
most active poachers into alternative occupational vocations as well as
serve on the ADMADE College Advisory Panel.
News release:
ZAWA CBNRM/ADMADE Programme:
Hunters turned conservationists Read more
On-going research at ZAWA's
African College for CBNRM and its NGO partner, Wildlife Conservation
Society of the Bronx Zoo, has shown that local hunters depend on game
meat to support household needs for food security and income. Many of
these hunters have become dependent on game meat for their livelihood
and in the process are reducing wildlife numbers in Zambia's wildlife
estate at alarming rates. Through close consultation with community
leaders in game management areas, ZAWA selected 27 local hunters who
have a long history of hunting as a livelihood to attend an alternative
livelihood course at the African College for CBNRM. The purpose of this
seven week course was to learn alternative skills that will replace the
need to hunt wildlife illegally. In the past, each of these hunters on
average killed between 60 and 120 wild animals annually. This
represented a total economic loss through legal tourism enterprises of
between $400,000 and $600,000 annually, though collectively these
hunters realized only about $9000 to $12,000 from the sale of meat.
On 22 September these hunters successfully completed their training
at the College and will return to their home areas as reformed hunters,
ready to work with their respective Community Resource Boards to reduce
poaching in their area. Eight courses were taught, including
conservation farming, dry season gardening, poultry, bee-keeping, honey
processing, and community-based tourism. Two professional hunting guides
also offered skills training in tracking and skinning to qualify the
local hunters as employees for the safari hunting industry. The local
hunters visited tourist lodges to learn about the benefits of tourism
and spoke to ZAWA Regional Manager, Eastern Region about ZAWA's
commitment to community participation in wildlife management.
The hunters originated from ADMADE areas in Luangwa Valley and southern
Kafue GMAs supported by the USAID-funded CONASA project in Southern
Province. Each hunter upon graduation was given adequate farmer inputs
through a joint project with World Food Programme and Project Against
Malnutrition in Eastern and Northern Provinces and CARE International in
Southern Province. They were also supported with supplementary maize for
household consumption to enable these hunters to concentrate on farming
for the next growing season.
At the graduation ceremony, hunters
signed an oath to lay down their firearms and concentrate on farming as
a way of producing more wildlife. In addition, each hunter pledged to
lead a community-wide effort to increase public awareness that better
ways than poaching do exist for living with wildlife and benefiting
legally from this wildlife.
After the farming season and upon
verification that these local hunters have lived up to their oath, ZAWA
through its NGO partner at the College and the CONASA project in
Southern Province will assist each hunter with grants to undertake small
agro-business enterprises and will also help leverage employment
opportunities for these hunters. This course marks a fundamental change
of approach in reducing poaching in Zambia. ZAWA believes that after
analyzing its success, this household livelihood approach will provide a
more cost-effective way of increasing wildlife production in Zambia
needed to support tourism development in the country.
