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South Luangwa Conservation Society
SLCS maintains a team of thirteen volunteer Village Scouts (VS's) who work with and support the ZAWA Wildlife Police Officers (WPO's) on their patrols and through hands on operational management can quickly respond to needs in the area such as reports of poaching activity or other illegal activities in the region. With the co-operation of local safari operators, through their provision of transport facilities and rations, patrol teams can be quickly deployed to supplement and assist the regular ZAWA patrols.
SLCS currently operates on a shoestring budget of less than USD 20,000 per annum including donations from Elefence International, American Fisheries and Wildlife and the Environmental Investigation Agency. The Society remains heavily reliant on the co-operation and assistance of the commercial operators and other stakeholders in the region. Under the Society's Memorandum of Understanding with the Zambian Government the eight man board, which includes representatives from ZAWA, commercial operators and local stakeholders act under the auspices and authority of the local Community Resource Board (CRB) to ensure that all interests are represented and activities controlled. Afrikeye will monitor the progress and activities of SLCS and, hopefully, will publish more news and information as it becomes available. |
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© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
Following
a number of years of turbulence, misunderstanding and other problems controlling
anti-poaching activities in the South Luangwa National Park and its surrounding
Game Management Areas things are turning round for the area. The newly formed
South Luangwa Conservation Society (SLCS) has developed a productive working
relationship between commercial safari operators and the Zambian Wildlife
Authority (ZAWA) to protect the wildlife and habitat in the region.
During
the period from November 2003 till March 2004 [when Afrikeye received these
figures], the Village Scouts and WPO's recorded a number of successes in
anti-poaching activity. Twenty-one poachers were apprehended and six muzzle
loading rifles confiscated. During these operations seven pairs of elephants'
tusks were recovered and confiscated on behalf of ZAWA. To illustrate the
serious approach that the judiciary are now viewing such crimes a single poacher found
in the possession of a single pair of tusks was recently sentenced to five years
hard labour by the Zambian Court. In a separate operation in Chipata in January
2003 eleven pairs of tusks were seized by WPO's and VS's