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Hammering Away
In Zambia’s
North Luangwa Valley, where rampant illegal wildlife poaching in the
‘80s decimated the elephant population and left villagers in extreme
poverty, Hammerskjoeld Simwinga, known as Hammer, is utilising
innovative sustainable community development strategies to restore
wildlife and transform this poverty-stricken area.
Heading up the
North Luangwa Wildlife Conservation and Community Development
Programme (NLWCCDP), Hammer protects the biodiversity of the North
Luangwa National Park while simultaneously improving village life in
the region through micro-lending, education, rural health programs
and women’s empowerment.
Hammer began
working in the region with the US-funded North Luangwa Conservation
Project in 1994, when local economies relied heavily on income from
poaching. He helped villagers form “wildlife clubs” that used small
business loans to provide basic goods, services and legal jobs as
alternatives to working for the poachers. Each wildlife club was run
as a free enterprise; village entrepreneurs were expected to repay
their start-up loans.
Through the
wildlife clubs, villagers opened small general stores and grinding
mills, offering employment to millers, mechanics and bookkeepers.
The programme also assisted subsistence farmers with seed loans,
transportation and technical assistance to help them grow
protein-rich crops with better yields so they did not have to depend
on meat from wild animals. Hammer tied the entire project to
protection of the wildlife, thus supplanting the illicit economy
based on poaching with a legal one.
 Hammer’s
tireless efforts have led to a dramatic transformation of the
region. Income has increased one hundred-fold among the villagers
and family food stocks have doubled. As a result, illegal elephant
poaching is now 98 percent controlled and bush meat poaching is
minimal. Wildlife has returned to the area, including elephants,
hippos, Cape buffalos, and puku. The Frankfurt Zoological Society
have felt confident enough to reintroduce the endangered black
rhinos into the area.
The programme
now reaches more than 35,000 people and serves as a model for other
sustainable development programmes throughout the African continent.
Hammer began
his community development work with the North Luangwa Conservation
Project (NLCP), a US-funded organisation founded in 1986 by Dr.
Delia and Mark Owens that trained local game scouts and worked with
villagers to rehabilitate and conserve the North Luangwa National
Park. In the ‘80s the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES) set regulations on, but did not ban,
trade in ivory, resulting in years of massive elephant poaching in
Africa; half of Africa’s 1.2 million wild elephants were killed
between 1979 and 1989 and North Luangwa’s elephant population
dropped from 17,000 to 1,300.
As the
successes of NLCP’s work became apparent in the mid-‘90s, powerful
government officials and others capitalising on poaching saw their
profits dwindle with the slowdown in the illicit ivory and meat
trade. In 1996, Zambian government officials arrived in Mpika and
seized the NLCP offices; the entire project came to a halt. Within
weeks the project was reopened but after a year of uncertainty, NLCP
was turned over to a new management organisation. They were unable
to fund all of NLCP’s initiatives and quickly dropped support for
all village development programmes.
But Hammer was
undeterred. He worked tirelessly to keep the community development
programme moving forward, funding the project partially through loan
payments from villagers. For almost a year he worked alone with the
communities, regularly walking 30 kilometres between villages.
Slowly he pulled together a substantial Zambian non-government
organization, NLWCCDP, and attracted small funding to keep the work
alive. His challenge now is to manage the ever-growing demand for
the project in neighbouring regions and bolster financial support
from the international community.
Hammer’s work
has now been given recognition as he is to receive, on 22 April, the
Goldman Environmental Prize as the African recipient for 2007. The
Goldman Environmental Prize allows individuals to continue winning
environmental victories against the odds and inspires ordinary
people to take extraordinary actions to protect the world. The
Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1990 by civic leaders and
philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H.
Goldman. Winners are selected by an international jury from
confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of
environmental organisations and individuals. Prize winners
participate in a 10-day tour of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.,
for an awards ceremony and presentation, news conferences, media
briefings, and meetings with political, public policy and
environmental leaders.
Well done
Hammer. Please keep hammering away at this.
Photo by John
Antonelli |
May
2007