THE Southern African Development Community should assist rural communities in the member states to contribute to economic growth by fully participating in wildlife activities.

Zambian permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Ms Eileen M. Imbwae said rural land owners, communities and villagers within SADC needed to be given incentives to participate fully in the economy by preserving wildlife

Ms Imbwae, who is leading a delegation of wildlife and tourism experts, said Zambia wanted to form a strong alliance with its neighbours and find various ways of improving the lives of communities that live in wildlife range areas.

She said people should be allowed to benefit from the wildlife resources abundant in the region. Ms Imbwae said the communities should be encouraged to become managers of the habitat and the wildlife, and to make the decisions that determine how they should benefit from the uses of wildlife.

“There is a system that is going on in Zambia. Wildlife farming is skewed towards the white or Indian communities. But, we are saying our people should benefit from hunting wildlife.

“We are trying to review the whole process to ensure the blacks benefit from the abundant resource. Sometimes even if we have tenders, whites will still win those. Why? Because they have got the money that they have made over years.”

Zambia wanted to take a cue from the Zimbabwe experience in terms of game farming and the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (Campfire)

“We may differ on how to carry out programmes that benefit communities, but definitely we are going ahead with empowering our people.”

She said the Zimbabwe Campfire programme had the distinction of being the first major project to recognise the importance of providing both benefits and a meaningful role to the people who lived with wildlife and its habitat. She was impressed during her fact –finding mission by the effort Zimbabwe was making to empower the blacks’ venture into wildlife and tourism sector.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

CAMPFIRE was initiated in 1989 by the Zimbabwean Government as a programme to support community-led development and sustainable use of natural resources, and has seen a rise in community involvement in wildlife conservation.

An understanding of how people and conservation agents deal with the problem of wild animals is critical in evolving and establishing sustainable conservation systems.

It is undoubtedly evident that the expansion of the human society has forced people to infringe on wildlife habitats and convert land to other uses incompatible with wildlife. This shows the need for extensive programmes that engage people to be good stewards of wildlife and create an environment that guarantees the safety of both animals and the people.

CAMPFIRE has a combined 2,4 million beneficiaries, made up of 200 000 households that actively participate in the programme, and another 600 000 households that benefit indirectly from social services and infrastructure supported by CAMPFIRE income within districts.

Wildlife contributes a substantial portion of foreign currency annually to the country’s economy through safari hunting, game cropping, tourism and live animal sales, hence the need to promote sustainable tourism, country-wide.

Safari hunting also contributes to the development of secondary industries, such as skin and hide processing and ivory carving. Although subsistence hunting is still illegal in most of the country, game cropping provides animal protein to people in the communal areas.