PROJECTS

Community Conservation, Education and Awareness

HUMAN-WILDLIFE CO-EXISTENCE

The Zambezi Society’s Human-Wildlife Co-existence Project works with communities living on the boundaries of the Charara Safari Area. Charara is largely surrounded by human settlements in the form of towns and villages - to the west by Gache-Gache Communal Land, to the north by Kariba Town, and to the south by crop and livestock farming villages in Hurungwe Rural District. With permanent settlements living near wildlife, human-wildlife conflict is inevitable, presenting a risk to human life, livelihoods, and wildlife populations.

Our project aims to build self-sufficient capacity within communities, and provide the resources required to strengthen human-wildlife co-existence by helping to prevent loss of crops, livestock predation, and loss of life – for both humans and wildlife. This is achieved through awareness workshops, building of predator- proof kraals for the safe keeping of livestock, and the making and deployment of chilli bricks, chilli strings and vuvuzelas to deter elephants from crops.

VIRTUAL REALITY

The vast majority of school children living on the boundaries of protected areas have experienced only negative narratives or interactions with wildlife – through human-wildlife conflict. As a result, many community members grow up with an over-riding negative attitude towards wildlife. Our Human-Wildlife Co-existence Project works to change this perception within the adult age group. Our Virtual Reality Project creates a platform to begin changing this attitude within the school age group.

The Virtual Reality Project ‘brings wildlife to the students’ by taking them on an educational, virtual reality ‘safari’ with videos played through Virtual Reality Goggles. The videos introduce an alternative perception to the vastly negative one and create a platform to open up a dialogue with students about conservation issues and human-wildlife co-existence. We engage specifically with 11–12-year-old students.

URBAN SCHOOL CONSERVATION AWARENESS

Creating awareness about the importance of wildlife and wilderness values among schoolchildren is a long-standing activity of the Zambezi Society. In Zimbabwe’s urban areas, schools like Chisipite Junior have long-standing programmes encouraging children to fund-raise for activities to protect endangered wildlife species. The Zambezi Society supports their efforts with an interactive presentation at the school’s yearly conservation assembly and uses the considerable funds raised by the children each year to support on-the-ground conservation activity.

PUBLIC AWARENESS

The Zambezi Society creates public awareness through its website, regular newsletter mailouts and an active Social Media presence on Instagram and Facebook. It also produces occasional printed information e.g. Codes of Conduct for Visitor Behaviour in National Parks, Respect the Wild leaflets/posters, etc. You can find these publications on our Educational Materials page.

Featured

THE BULLETIN - DECEMBER 2024

December 2024: The Zambezi Society’s end of year news for 2024 reports on a useful dialogue session hosted with conservation colleagues to share ideas about what's needed to effectively sustain support for Zambezi Valley conservation into the future. We highlight some promising developments for the future management of some of the Valley's protected areas, but also many challenges, including some worrying development controversies in and around the Victoria Falls. We report on our fieldwork assisting ZimParks with vehicle support for anti-poaching deployments and reactions in the Zambezi Valley, and supporting WildCru’s predator survey work in the Sengwa, Chirisa and Chizarira areas. We continue to provide practical solutions to communities in and around Kariba and Mana Pools with Human-Wildlife Co-Existence (HWC), and are expanding our innovative HWC Virtual Reality programme to schoolchildren. We also pay tribute to two dedicated conservation colleagues who lost their lives in tragic circumstances.

THE BULLETIN - JAN-APRIL 2024

Jan - April 2024: The Zambezi Society is focusing and strengthening our efforts to help communities with practical solutions and awareness about Human-Wildlife Co-Existence, along the southern boundary of the Charara Safari Area and within Kariba Town itself. We're printing new awareness materials and plan to extend our Virtual Reality programme in schools to other parts of the Zambezi Valley. We continue to assist ZimParks with anti-poaching around Kariba and in Mana Pools, where the new trans-boundary co-management agreement with the Peace Parks Foundation brings hope for new partnership opportunities. We've also got some more carnivore survey research work lined up with WildCru this year, and we welcome Zambia's decision to withdraw the licence for the controversial Kangaluwi Copper Mine in the Zambezi Valley opposite Mana Pools and Sapi. This is a great win for conservation!

THE BULLETIN - NOV-DEC 2023

Nov-Dec 2023: This year, Zamsoc has continued to provide material and operational assistance to ZimParks in the Charara Safari Area and in Mana Pools. We await more details of the newly-signed Peace Parks/ZimParks co-management agreement for the Greater Mana Ecosystem, and are standing by to collaborate. Thanks to donor support, we helped to complete carnivore surveys in the Zambezi Valley, strengthened our Human-Wildlife Co-existence projects with communities in the Charara-Kariba area, and provided ongoing support for rangers and their families.

THE BULLETIN - JULY 2023

July 2023: We welcome the halt of mining activities at the Zambian Kangaluwi copper mining project opposite the Mana-Sapi-Chewore World Heritage Site and hope that the new Lower Zambezi/Mana Pools Trans-Frontier Conservation agreement will strengthen efforts to combat such threats. We report on our community work, carnivore research, and ongoing support for Zimparks (ranger deployments, food supplies and refurbishments at Marongora School).