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Luangwa Valley Dispatch
By Jake da Motta
Help needed!
The South
Luangwa Conservation Society began with a rag-tag group of Safari
Guides in the early 1990’s who were given Honorary Wildlife Police
Officer status by ZAWA (then National Parks & Wildlife Service).
They pledged time, money, fuel and vehicles; set up snare patrols,
road blocks and anti-poaching activities in cooperation with the
Parks authority and the sterling assistance of a small but dedicated
team of casual workers drawn from the local community; some of whom
were part time subsistence poachers themselves. As the years went by
the efficiency and success of the unit grew and became ever more
crucial in a supporting role for ZAWA. The lodges and private
donations continued to fund the Honorary Rangers and this team
became the Rapid Action Team (RAT’s). The scouts seconded by ZAWA
were trained professionally, discipline and esprit de corps
blossomed and with DG’s encouragement the SLCS was born. We were
lucky enough to find an excellent volunteer CEO in Rachel McRobb who
subsequently sourced funding for SLCS from international
conservation societies (such as Elefence) and the Royal Danish
Embassy, allowing SLCS to build a base, buy vehicles and equipment
and establish a working relationship with the local community.
Currently SLCS funds and equips the Kakumbi Community Resource
Board’s scouts and helps organize their anti-poaching activities
under the direction of ZAWA. This has boosted the effectiveness of
the Society which is now perceived as working for the
community rather than against them. SLCS’s mandate has been
much expanded to include education objectives and community based
initiatives to reduce Human Elephant Conflict such as Chili Fences
which help villagers live more harmoniously with the wildlife that
they are encouraged to conserve. Whilst the DANIDA funding has
helped enormously the SLCS still relies entirely on the lodges and
local donations for the scout salaries and many other expenses. As
anyone living in Zambia will understand completely with the Kwacha
revaluing by 30% this year SLCS can now no longer cover these
outgoings and is in dire need of more support.
Most visitors
to the Luangwa will have come into contact with the SLCS through
their lodge and many assist us through donations and memberships
leaving behind a much needed “thank you” to the animals and the
community that make their wonderful safari experience possible.
Practically everyone working in Zambia will visit the Valley during
their stay and bring vacationing family here for a safari and long
term residents have become more like friends over the years with
regular trips to Mfuwe. SLCS really needs your support and
membership fees are very reasonable…..
·
Individual Membership - U$5 per month ($60 per year).
·
Family membership - U$20 per month.
·
Corporate membership - U$500 per year.
Zambian based
businesses can be affiliated to the SLCS and put something positive
back into the future of the Valley and its human and animal
residents. SLCS would be delighted to offer a reciprocal website
link to a member company’s site on the SLCS website
www.SouthLuangwaConservationSociety.com and to have them proudly
say in their literature that they are Corporate Members of the SLCS!
The Corporate Membership fee is only $500pa and there are many other
ways that you, as a company or individual, can help by sponsoring a
safari drive for a local child, a Chili Fence Starter Pack or an
anti-poaching patrol. Please think about this and contact Rachel via
the website if you are able to help in any way.
Meanwhile our
colleagues in the wildlife industry in Livingstone are facing what
looks like tourism development gone rogue! Legacy Holdings (Zambia)
plans to build in the Mosi o Tunya National Park (a UNESCO World
Heritage Site) the Mosi-oa-Tunya Hotel and Country Club Estate
Project which includes the 4 star Mosi-oa-Tunya Hotel and
International Conference Centre, the 5 star Queen Victoria Hotel and
the Queen Victoria Country Club and Golf Estate which will have an
18 hole golf course, luxury villas, health spa, gym, swimming pool,
tennis and squash courts etc. A Marina on the Zambezi River for the
boats will finish off the project…and ensure ringside seats for some
spectacular “interactions” with hapless tourists if any elephant is
foolish enough to try and use this historical crossing point.
The World Bank
SEED Project's objective to “..support the Government of the
Republic of Zambia's (GRZ) efforts to stimulate diversified economic
growth and private sector investment in the country, using tourism
as an entry point.” plus US$35Million for the SEED Project to
dole out to gravy train riders combined with undenied nepotism and
the not insubstantial carrot of huge investment and job creation
will, I fear, inevitably trample the reasonable and justifiable
concerns of stakeholders. Unfortunately stakeholders are just that,
and the new breed of tourism investors who are canny enough to offer
to share the fruits of their investment with the very people who
decide on policy are always going to retort that those in opposition
to new development are those who already hold a stake they do not
wish to be threatened. But hell!....the Sierra Club beat the Disney
Corporation 40 years ago and none of the current protagonists are
anything like as scary as “Uncle Walt” an American icon and creative
genius also described as a “power-hungry, ruthless, paranoid,
vengeful and inhuman tyrant”. The US$ will probably prevail; as
Margaret Whitehead, former Livingstone Town Councilor suggests “I
believe ZAWA has been told by government that they must be
self-sustaining. Obviously they have decided that hotels have more
value than animals and the environment and the local people, not to
mention the future of tourism around the Falls. The museum has also
(been) told it should be self-sustaining. Maybe they should
sell off their valuable artifacts to other museums. Next will be the
Forest Department, who will sell off all the trees.(…already
happening in Eastern Province) Then National Heritage, who will
sell pieces of national monuments to American collectors.”
Perhaps less of a fait accompli is another new venture also
leaping ahead of Environmental Council approval in Livingstone.
African Encounters in partnership with Safari Par Excellence are to
establish a captive lion breeding project in the same fiercely
contested Mosi o Tunya National Park. A project already promoted by
African Encounters at Antelope Park in Gweru, Zimbabwe, heralds the
Lion Walk as “A World Exclusive! Walk with them, touch them and
play with them –NO leashes! NO collars! Magnificent photo
opportunities and an experience rated along with “visiting mountain
gorillas in Uganda”; “not only the highlight of my African safari,
but of my ENTIRE LIFE!” Obviously whoever compared the
experience with visiting the mountain gorillas was under the
impression that they too had been bred in captivity, removed from
their mothers at 1-6 weeks, habituated to humans and then after a
year being used as photographic props might be sold to animal
dealers in South Africa for use primarily as live targets for canned
safari hunts. I don’t remember that part of my gorilla experience in
Rwanda, but now realise what a clever little minx Dian Fossey was to
set up the Gorilla Walk in the Virungas and make it look like a
conservation project!
Our neighbours in South Africa have just passed legislation (May 2,
2006) banning the captive breeding of predators for other than
conservation or research purposes and surely GRZ should be taking
their lead from a country that has been seen as a pariah in the
conservation world for allowing canned hunting and uncontrolled
captive breeding to take place….and has now cleaned up their act.
Must we ignore the signs (Xen?) and go down the same unfortunate
road buying into a sector of the industry that is already on short
finals? Unless “Walking with Lions” is the by-product of a proven
lion conservation project it is not the act of a responsible tourist
or tour operator and although a relatively new activity would belong
with such anachronistic and exploitive animal industries as the
dancing bear and the organ grinder’s monkey!
African Encounter claim a scientific and conservation based
justification for their programme stating that “Captive bred
lions can and have been rehabilitated into the wild. In South
Africa, this is confirmed by senior ecologists and
conservationists.” but we are not told who these experts are or
where the successful reintroductions of whole prides of captive bred
lions have been reported. The FAQ page on African Encounters’
website
http://www.lionencounter.com/faqs.htm does not include the
question “Since 1972 when the programme started how many lions have
been successfully relocated to depleted NPs?” Surely an encouraging
answer to this would knock a lot of criticism on the head!
Tourists these days are being encouraged to grow a conscience and
even the most politically incorrect lager-lout holidaying in
Torremolinas thinks twice about posing with a Valium pumped
chimpanzee being dragged around the tapas bars. Chimps too have been
successfully rehabilitated after abusive beginnings….I wonder then
why the Siddles have never thought of setting up a captive breeding
and forced habituation programme to sell “magnificient photo
opportunities” (…perhaps ‘Chimps at O’Hagans’ on a Friday night?) to
fund their conservation project….what are they thinking of? African
Encounters plans to generate annually as the by-product of their
tourism venture, a dozen or so surplus habituated lions with no
pride structure or hunting abilities and no fear of humans. Seems to
me that these are the exact same qualifications possessed by every
man eating lion I have ever heard of in the last two decades in the
Luangwa. It may well be possible to “rehabilitate” captive bred
lions, however this is not a justification for “debilitating” lions
for commercial reasons. Heroin addicts can also be cured and become
useful members of society and so can their children and
grandchildren….but can you get an Opium Den Operators
Licence?...…nope!
If you wish to get involved with any of the issues above on either
side of the fence please visit
http://victoriafallsheritage.blogspot.com/ |
September
2006