Zimbabwe, Kenya chiefs share notes on human-wildlife conflict

CHIEF Nekatambe of Hwange and Chief Siphoso of Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North represented Zimbabwe at a wildlife conservation workshop for traditional leaders from East and Southern Africa held in Kenya recently.

The workshop was aimed at creating a platform for traditional leaders in communities surrounded by game parks to share their experiences of human-wildlife conflict and exchange notes with the Maasai people of Kenya in East Africa.

The Maasai co-exist with animals at Amboseli National Park. Crowned by Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, the Amboseli National Park is one of Kenya’s most popular parks.

Traditional leaders from other countries such as Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia also attended the event.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) facilitated the workshop through the “Room to Roam” programme. The international organisation is rolling out programmes that promote wildlife and environment conservation as well as co-existence between animals and communities.

Amboseli is home to 600 different kinds of birds and wildlife species, and just like Hwange National Park, is located near communities resulting in wild animals straying into human settlements and destroying property and crops and sometimes killing people.

Both chiefs said the visit was fruitful and needed to be replicated so that local communities see value in wildlife taking lessons from the Maasai.

“We went there and learnt a lot. We were looking at ways of seeing how communities can benefit from the wildlife around them and from ecotourism since we are communities that live in animal areas,” said Chief Siphoso.

“What we learnt there was that communities don’t kill animals because they see value in them. It is different from our case where we kill them or quickly raise alarm when we see a lion. In Kenya, we saw herd boys with their livestock mingling with different kinds of animals.”

Chief Siphoso said the Maasai people have ways of mitigating human-wildlife conflict which include putting pens within their homesteads to protect their livestock from being attacked by predators at night.

Locally, people have come up with the Boma concept of building pens using canvas tents which they pitch inside a field to prevent wild animals from seeing what is inside.

Wild animals are also scared of coming close to such structures and villagers use manure from the Bomas to improve fertility in their fields thereby improving food security.

Hwange Rural District Council, working with its partners has initiated the Boma project in parts of rural Hwange.

Chief Siphoso said buffer zones should be created for animals, especially in light of climate change which has seen the habitat depleting.

“What should be done to prevent human-wildlife conflict is to create more space by identifying areas that are set aside for wildlife. I think we have such land and if we bring these ideas which we leant from Kenya we can succeed,” he said.

“We share borders so there is a need for cross-border collaboration given the geographical proximity that we have. We hope this programme can also be done here so that other countries also see learn.”

Ifaw seeks to join together dispersed landscapes giving elephants and other migratory species the freedom to move freely while also empowering local communities to co-exist peacefully with animals.

“Traditional leaders, as custodians of heritage, have a role to create a culturally informed community that can co-exist with wildlife, it was said at the workshop,” said Chief Siphoso.

Chief Nekatambe in whose area Ifaw has done some conservation projects, concurred saying he was touched by how Maasai people interacted with wild animals.

He said observation of cultural values also helps in mitigating conflict.

“We wanted to see how best people can co-exist with animals and I leant a lot about how best I can address our people on conflict prevention and climate change mitigation. What we noticed was that countries have totally different approaches, especially looking at the Maasai people,” said Chief Nekatambe.

“They don’t kill wildlife or eat them because culturally they believe their cattle will be naturally affected and not produce milk. They do value wildlife and understand their importance, something can be adopted locally.”