Wildlife Conservation Outside Protected Areas—Lessons from an Experiment in Zambia

Abstract

Abstract:Managing an area as a national park in Africa often entails dealing with human pressures from regions surrounding the protected area Dealing with these human pressures is the subject of this paper, which goes well beyond mere law enforcement to discuss the realm of traditional leadership in the village, rural socioeconomics, and the services of wildlife management by government in areas surrounding a national park.This paper describes the results of an experimental project in Zambia that sought to halt the drastic loss of elephants and rhinos to poaching in and around protected areas in the Luangwa Valley. The design of this project was to involve local residents outside national parks in wildlife protection and management activities. In addition, sustained‐yield uses of wildlife were adopted to recycle revenue shares into community development and to make the program of wildlife management financially self‐supporting.To help carry out the various tasks of protecting and developing wildlife resources, residents were trained and employed as wildlife management staff Village wildlife councils provided advice and assistance. Safari concessions yielded sufficient revenue to meet the recurrent costs of wildlife management and also generated significant earnings for local community benefits. As a result; poaching dropped dramatically, local economies were improve and village attitudes toward wildlife management and conservation became more positive.