The need
Wildlife populations in Zambia have significantly declined, and this creates hardships for communities who depend on wildlife resources for food and income.
The SWM Programme in Zambia promotes a community conservancy model that supports local wildlife re-stocking breeding, alternative livlihoods and sustainable management for improved health and income security.
Duration
2024 – Present
Locations
Zambia
Link
What we’re doing
The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is designed to reduce hunting of wildlife to sustainable levels, protecting endangered wildlife species, conserving biodiversity, maintaining the essential ecological roles of wildlife within forested and savanna ecosystems, and securing stocks and flows of provisioning ecosystem services.
The SWM Programme works in 16 countries, developing innovative, collaborative and scalable new approaches to conserve wild animals and protect ecosystems, whilst at the same time improving the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and rural communities who depend on these resources. Monitoring and Evaluation is a key part of the project, which has collected baseline information on wild meat use in each of the project sites, as well as monitoring the impacts of project interventions on people and wildlife.
In Zambia, the SWM Programme is helping to set up and run the Mize-Lukuni Community Conservancy (MLCC) in the Nyawa and Musokotwane chiefdoms of Kazungula District, Southern Province of Zambia. The goal is to achieve community-led conservation across the degraded wildlife corridor that connects Kafue National Park to the wider Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA).
In practice, this means restoring wildlife populations, improving the health of the natural habitat, and creating livelihood opportunities for people living in the area, such as fish farming, beekeeping, and livestock projects. Objectives include:
The team
This SWM Programme is a collaboration between:
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)
- Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)
- Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
In Zambia, the SWM Programme partners with the Nyawa and Musokotwane chiefdoms, respectively.
Project leads:
Griffin Shanungu
G.Shanungu@cifor-icraf.org
Supporters
This project is supported by:
