The Kasanka Trust was set up when in 1985, a British expatriate, David Lloyd, who had lived in Zambia on and off for many years, visited Kasanka out of curiosity. There were no roads or bridges and no tourists had penetrated the Park for many years, but he managed to explore a little on foot. On hearing the crack of gunshots he concluded that if there was still poaching, there must still be animals! He was impressed with the beautiful habitats he found and decided to try and save the Park from complete destruction and the threat of losing its National Park status. He teamed up with a local farmer who had also explored the Park a little, and the two used their own resources to employ scouts and build roads, bridges and temporary camps. These early efforts were encouraged by the government, which had been unable to manage the Park itself. In order to help raise funds and formalise their position, they formed the Kasanka Trust, which was registered in Zambia (1987) and UK (1989).
The Project soon attracted attention from conservationists, and tourism started to bring in a little money to help cover costs. In 1990, the National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) was sufficiently impressed by the progress to sign an agreement allowing the Trust to manage the Park and develop tourism to help fund its activities. This agreement recognised the importance of co-operation with the local community, which has always been central to the trust’s philosophy. In May 2003 the new Zambia Wildlife Authority which took over from National Parks and Wildlife Service, signed a new agreement for a further 5 years which automatically renews for a further 5 years at expiry. This agreement grants the Kasanka Trust “exlusive rights to manage and develop Kasanka National Park….” Kasanka is Zambia’s first national park under private management and is entirely reliant on tourism revenue and charitable funding.
Today we find the park thriving and full of animal species. For both of us, it is our first safari-esque experience and thus we can’t really compare it to any other parks, it was however truly beautiful. The view from the Wasa Lodge, where we spent most of our down time, and enjoyed our evening meals, overlooked a wetland, which was home to numerous bird species, hippos, and crocodiles. The evening sounds were completely bewildering, reminiscent of a Disney film soundtrack. The roars of the hippos, the bell like chorus of the birds, and the constant hum of insects, created a sensory overload, unlike anything I have ever experienced (well, since Ethiopia).
The original purpose of the trust, as stated above, was to rejuvenate a park depleted in animal species, and falling foul of hunting and neglect. The mission, however, involved a great deal of community interaction, and it was imperative to their ambitions to simultaneously protect the park, and instigate community development. The premise was an extremely strong one, which involved the local community learning and seeing for themselves the great benefit of conservation work. The idea was that if they saw tangible benefits from the conservation, anti-poaching, tourism etc, they would embrace the park, and be happy to adopt different approaches to earning a living (other than poaching). The model was that the park conservation helped to increase animal numbers, which in turn attracted a greater number of tourists, and thus more revenue, which would be shared with the community through development projects. This model, as well as helping to display the above-mentioned benefits of conservation, also gave the local communities a feeling of ownership over the park, and thus a sense of pride.
For once our timing was good, and we had arrived at a time when the sponsored secondary school students were doing a field trip at the park. To our delight, one of the community projects that the Trust embarked upon was to assist local children with secondary education. This had been an issue in most if not all of the African countries that we had passed through. There seemed to be almost an excess of primary education projects, but very few which maintained support to that next stage. The children were at the park for a few days to learn about conservation, animal species, and everything else connected to the Kasanka National Park and Trust. It was certainly a great place to start the community development focus, and many of the children displayed a keen interest to become involved within nature conservation in the future.
Our first morning in Kasanka was an early one, as it had been decided that we would join the sponsored students, and the Officer for Education, Given, on a morning safari. We had limited expectations, as we had only ever heard about safaris second hand, and thus were extremely excited when after only a short time we had our first big sighting. We had stepped out of the vehicle at the first base camp, and immediately were pointed in the direction of some Elephants. At first they were just grey lumps hiding in the long grass in the distance, but after a short period they came out into full view, and soon the incredible grandeur of one of Africa’s most famous animals was clear to see. This sighting set the tone for the day, and after walking a good few miles, we had seen several species of antelope and bird, some monkeys, and four hippos. It had been an incredibly successful morning, and not only on the animal front, but also with the children who were really great examples of why education is a key component of development of any kind. As if to put a cherry on top of proceedings, as we headed back to where we had left the vehicles at base camp and just before Phil and I headed back to base, the elephants had grown in number, and soon 13 elephants were walking across the plains in front of us. It was an incredible sight, and the presence of a three-day old just enhanced the experience further.
After a quick rest for lunch, we headed off into the bush to visit some rangers out on patrol. Teams of around six or seven men would spend just over a week on patrol out in the park, looking for any signs of poaching, or trespass. The problem had been catastrophic in the past, and had played a huge role in dilapidating the animal numbers. The rangers were very welcoming to us, and incredibly articulate. Many had worked in the park for over ten years, and there was an apparent sense of pride towards the work they did. They all commented on how they had seen an incredible increase in animal numbers in their time working there, and also mentioned that the community had come to accept the work they do now, where as before they had been met with some negativity. This was down, in their opinion, to the understanding now within many members of the community that protecting the park, and its wildlife, was also helping to enrich their community, and provide them with opportunities for the future. Poaching, however, hadn’t by any means disappeared completely, and one member of the team had recently had a frightening encounter where he had been shot at a couple of times by someone out hunting. The issue is certainly, however, improving, and with further work within the community, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
After a second day spent exploring the lodge, chatting to tourists, employees, and volunteers, and running interviews with both Inge, the Park Manager, and Given, our final day was spent with the community development team, with whom we visited several development projects in the local area. One of the key approaches of the community development section of the Kasanka Trust was to focus on income generating activities, which could replace the necessity to poach. There was a chronic lack of employment opportunities in the area, with Kasanka really offering the only real jobs, and thus money was hard to come by. The focus was thus on several different farming initiatives. We visited vegetable farms, where seeds had been provided for by the Trust, fish farms, and bee keeping projects, all of which seemed to be successful. Again, however, as we’ve seen many times on the continent, it is not the growing of crops, which is the problem, but rather the selling, as there is a limited market within the poorer rural areas. It did, however, provide families with good food, and made enough additional money to buy other necessities. The one problem we encountered, however, was that there wasn’t enough income generated to make the farms sustainable, and the Trust faced an issue of many people requesting supplementary support to help expand their businesses, meaning that they were becoming slightly dependent on the financial support.
Again, a recurring theme we have encountered during our time in Africa in particular, is many repeat projects. They are always good starting blocks. You have primary education, micro-finance business grants, school buildings, feeding centres etc, but often, due to the grass roots nature of the charities involved, they end there, at this initial stage. It is not a criticism of such ventures, but rather an observation. This is perhaps where larger NGOS, or government bodies should become involved, however, I also feel that it is a clear sign that there is a need for a new approach, and an increased diversity with regards to grass roots development in Africa. It is the lack of innovation that inspired our project in the first place, and shows exactly the problem caused by the massive gap between community projects and the major NGOS. The community projects are aware of the problems, in respect to moving on to the next stage, but have a specific goal, and a lack of resources to expand. The larger NGOs, and maybe I’m being a little harsh, but am speaking from my observations, simply don’t seem to have that same understanding.
Again, this simply cements the philosophy of Patchwork World, which is to work as a force in between the small community based projects, to catalyse cooperation and innovation, to overcome the next level issues, and move development on to that next stage. Development on this level has existed for long enough now, with the same recurring problems, that something should exist to help overcome them. From my experiences thus far on this journey and before, however, it doesn’t. I hear of major NGOS carrying out initiatives with grass roots charities, however the few times I have seen anything of this ilk, it has been at arms length, and through funding only. Once more, it is time for some people in development to think ‘what’s next?’ and to begin to consider the steps in between the initial support stage, and the level of sustainability and prosperity that is being sort in the long run. It is key, in my opinion, for a new energy, and level of innovation to be injected into the sector to boost the good work being done thus far, and really I believe this needs to be the core focus of Patchwork World.
The community projects carried out by Kasanka Trust, however, were successfully achieving their objectives. In addition to the farming ventures, there was also support given to many local primary schools to enhance sustainability, in addition to supplementing education, with conservation groups, workshops, and field trips. The poaching had decreased rapidly over the years that the Trust’s community work has been active, and certainly the community felt a new sense of importance towards both education and conservation. The model wasn’t completely functional in reality, in the respect that they were reliant on a large amount of donor support to maintain the community development section of their work. As Inge mentioned during her interview, the primary objective of their work would always be on the direct running of the park, and thus if the money received by donors was taken away, the community development section would suffer first. This, again, is a sign of a small grass roots organisation, clearly achieving their objectives, but now requiring cooperation, and innovative approaches from outside to advance their work onto the next level.
After a final treat of oven baked pizza on our last afternoon, we decided to eat a little way into the journey down towards Lusaka, and put a few miles on the clock. We only managed to get a few hours in before darkness descended, but it meant that the journey down the following day would be quick and easy, and that we should arrive at a decent hour. We still had the issue of having neither passed through immigration or customs, and thus we would have to contend with that there. We hoped it wouldn’t pose too much of a problem, but as it was, we had to stay in Lusaka for the weekend, and sort out our various issues on the Monday. After some confusion, a couple of heated discussions, and long long waits, we eventually had both our passports and carnet stamped, and could continue onwards to Zimbabwe, where we would be visiting the Goromonzi Project, in the capital, Harare.
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