A RECOVERING SIOMA NGWEZI NATIONAL PARK: INSPIRING PEOPLE, WILDLIFE AND PARTNERSHIPS.

The World Wildlife Day (WWD) was proclaimed on 20 December 2013 by the United Nations General Assembly as a global celebration of the biodiversity of wild fauna and flora to raise awareness of numerous benefits of conserving it to people. The commemoration falls on the 3rd day of March every year.

This year’s theme for WWD is ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation.’ ?The theme perfectly describes the work of WWF in securing key landscapes such as Sioma Ngwezi, Bangweulu, Liuwa, Luangwa, and the Zambezi. This WWD we spotlight the value of our partnership programs in restoring wildlife in the 3rd largest park in Zambia that started in 2017. We have worked in close collaboration with Department of National Parks Wildlife (DNPW), the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE), Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), KAZA secretariat, various donors, and the communities in the surrounding Silowana. These partnerships have acted together ?under a powerful common vision to restore wildlife in an almost forgotten park and has transformed lives.???

For many years, Sioma Ngwezi National Park saw marked ?decline in wildlife populations due to insufficient investments in law enforcement operations to protect the game. This led to uncontrolled harvesting of bushmeat by locals and was exacerbated by the war in Angola.?The park was thus used as a refuge for Angolan guerilla fighters s to the detriment of Sioma wildlife conservation.

Responding to the WWF global goals of zero loss of natural habitats as well as zero extinctions of species, WWF in Zambia teamed up with DNPW, BRE and PPF to work towards the restoration of Silowana ecosystem which includes Sioma Ngwezi National park and surrounding West Zambezi ?Game Management Area. Since 2017, WWF Zambia in partnership with DNPW restocked over 900 various key wildlife species namely, Sable antelope, Wildebeest, Impala, Zebra, and Buffalo. Over the years, the restocking exercise impacted the ecological bottom-up model where a restoration of a functional herbivore population has led to the increase and thriving large carnivore guild in Zambia’s third largest park. Sioma Ngwezi National Park has thus recently and frequently recorded many large carnivore sightings e.g. Lions, Cheetah, Hyena, Leopard and Wild dogs which positions it as another major tourism destination between Livingstone and the Liuwa plains.?These partnerships have delivered wildlife recovery results.

With increased wildlife numbers, we have faced the challenge of increased human-wildlife conflicts.?Elephants, hippos, crocodiles, spotted hyenas, leopards and lions have been frequently cited conflict causing species with communities living side by side with wildlife.

There are over 70000 people living within the Silowana Complex. Reports from 2017 to 2021 community-led game counts indicate a constant increase in wildlife population. With the expanding populations of local people and wildlife, competition for space and water at the Zambezi and Kwando rivers has become more intense, resulting in frequent and widespread human-wildlife conflict incidents. These are majorly driven by climate change. And the local economic consideration which is driven 60% of the local people who depend on agriculture and cattle keeping. As a result, the impacts of HWC from both herbivores raiding agriculture fields and large carnivores depredating upon their cattle has potential to negatively impact the local economy and household food security. It is important to also note that women and children are often the victims of wildlife attacks. Women are traditionally expected to fetch firewood and water from the bush and rivers respectively while children act as cattle herders. Luckily our partnership with the likes of Panthera and Elephant Connections have enabled us to successfully map wildlife corridors so as to enhance efforts to protect people from wildlife and, wildlife from people.?

Our work in Silowana complex has included concerted efforts to support reduction in human wildlife conflicts through strengthening Community Resources Boards (CRBs) who have?directed community law enforcement work, led??communities in the establishment of fences, we have invested in building alternative resilient water sources for communities and wildlife. Our program has supported over 7000 farmers practising sustainable forestry and conservation agriculture away from wildlife corridors with great success.?Over 100,000 Ha of forest in the Silowana complex is under community management and has provided an opportunity for the development of forest-based community enterprises related to Honey, Mungongo oil and Devil’s claw productions. These have increased income opportunities for locals to transform their lives.

WWF has equally prioritized capacity building of CRB/VAGs governance structures to localize and enhance effectiveness of management of natural resources, prevention and mitigation of human wildlife conflict, and monitoring restoration efforts. WWF Zambia currently in the process of upscaling its current approach to HWC to the SAFE systems approach. The Human Wildlife Conflict SAFE Systems is a suite of actions across all the six elements-response, policy, monitoring, mitigation, prevention and understanding the conflict that contribute to a single long- term goal for an area: to make it safe - safe for people, assets, wildlife and habitat.?Conflict prevention measures installed include Elephant restraining fences, Crocodile restraining lines, and predator proof Kraals.?Two HWC rapid response teams have been formed and equipped with an all-terrain Land Cruiser for easy mobility and reduced response time.

There has been success on all sites where the HWC interventions have been installed with near zero conflict incidents since 2021 compared to the years before that when up to 100 forms of conflicts would be reported in the same hotspot areas. With a holistic approach to ecosystem restoration and human-wildlife coexistence, a thriving Silowana complex is a possibility.??

This year’s commemoration presents us with an opportunity to advance these partnerships that encourage a human-wildlife coexistence and deliver a transformational conservation driven local economy that delivers more opportunities for local people from sound natural resource management and ecosystem stewardship.