Chief Kahare of Kaoma district in western Zambia presides over an area that was once a poachers’ haven which has now been transformed into a sustainable production area.
Concerted efforts by WWF-Zambia, the Norwegian embassy and, most importantly, former poachers and the community have turned the area into a multi-production zone.
WWF-Zambia’s efforts in transforming poachers and making local communities resourceful through alternative livelihoods have added impetus to the programmes.
Mafunta was gazetted a Game Management Area (GMA) in 2007.
The Mufunta GMA lies on the western border of the Kafue National Park, Zambia’s largest national park. It is the buffer zone for the Kafue National Park. “I lived in Namwala near a GMA, people who live in GMAs live well, they are able to take their children to school and afford decent health services,” Chief Kahare said.
Apart from wildlife, Mufunta is rich in timber, grass, as well as fish which should be conserved sustainably through participatory management by local people.
“The purpose of the project is to establish efficient, equitable and sustainable participatory natural resource management systems in the Mufunta Game Management Area by 2015,” Martin Mbewe, manager of the WWF-Mufunta Project, said.
The organisation has initiated sustainable alternative livelihood strategies to keep members of the communities busy. This was done through the establishment of village action groups and community resource boards.
About 154 commodity groups have been established with the sole mandate of providing alternative livelihoods and income generation activities to members of the local communities.
“Under the project, we proposed to have 10 Village Action Groups (VAGs),” Stephen Mtongo, WWF – Zambia Mufunta Community-Based Natural Resources Management project field officer, said.
While VAGs are expected to initiate protective strategies within their areas, WWF–Zambia has on its part devised a holistic approach towards the same by training VAG and community group representatives in gender, HIV and AIDS by linking it to natural resources management.
Villagers have been taught entrepreneurship, business administration, marketing and natural resources management.
Because of the training received, some VAGs have embarked on a number of ventures such as horticulture, poultry, piggery, honey and wax production, fish farming, carpentry, tailoring and handicrafts.
Kamwaya Kamwaya, 63, a farmer said working as a group has proved profitable because the labour output has improved. “In terms of food, we are more secure than before, we could not produce vegetables during the dry season, we relied on rain-fed crops,” said the retired policeman.
Ford Musamba, 36, is a beneficiary of the anti-poaching drive in the area. A reformed poacher, Mr. Musamba is among 20 village scouts who have been trained at Nyamalume College in Mfuwe and is cherishing being employed as a scout.
One of the success stories of Mufunta is the schools and conservation education where environmental issues are taught in schools. Effective environmental education has increased public awareness and knowledge of the relevant issues among the villagers and has led to a better understanding of how individual and collective actions affect the environment.
Norwegian ambassador to Zambia, Tore Gjøs, said Norway supports Mufunta GMA through WWF to develop income-generating activities as an alternative to poaching. “So far, the emphasis has been on agriculture, livestock, aquaculture and forestry, but the communities have identified one or two areas that can be developed as tourist camps,” Mr. Gjøs said.
He explained: “At the moment there are no tourism facilities on the western border of the park. The challenge will be both to get an operator who is willing to invest in tourism in Mufunta and to have a sustainable level of wildlife. Safari tourism and "photo tourism" will also have to be zoned.”
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