The South Luangwa Conservation Society is a non-profit community based organisation committed to the conservation and preservation of the local wildlife and natural resources in Luangwa and at the same time ensuring and encouraging community development amongst local populations. Set up in 2003 by local stake holders, SLCS now plays an important role in conservation within the Luangwa valley.
SLCS relies entirely on donations from members and grant applications and ensures 100% of donations goes directly towards conservation activities.
SLCS works closely with the Zambia Wildlife Authority and local Community Resource Boards under a memorandum of understanding. One of SLCS main activities includes the support of village scouts with law enforcement activities by providing technical, financial and material support. Currently SLCS is supporting forty six village scouts in Kakumbi Chiefdom with all patrol rations, uniforms, training, deployments, incentives and accommodation. Thirty six scouts also obtain their salaries from SLCS while the remaining ten receive salaries from the CRB. The village scouts play an important role in park and game management protection.
Human elephant conflict is one of the major problems facing local communities in South Luangwa and is often the reason for animosity and contempt towards conservation activities. Mitigating these conflicts is an ongoing and challenging task for SLCS and in partnership with ZAWA, the CRB's and Awely we are constantly striving to find new and innovative ways of dealing with the problem. These include chilli blasting by local based hunters, chilli fencing in combination with a income generating chilli farming project.
The who project is managed by five full time members of staff dedicated to addressing and monitoring wildlife conflict.
SLCS education programs include the construction and support of Uyoba Community school based in Luangwa. Like most community schools, Uyoba started under a tree and has now developed in to a school with over 380 pupils, four classrooms, three offices and two teachers houses.
SLCS also works closely with Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre and joins forces to present scout talks in different local schools.
In additon to these, we also host the annual SLCS mini marathon, a ten km run open to everyone to raise conservation awareness. The sports day includes the marathon, relay races, tug of war and many other events and is fast becoming a fixed event in Mfuwe.
SLCS is the only body in South Luangwa equipped and skilled to immobilize, treat and rehabilitate snared and other wounded animals. With years of experience in darting over eighty elephants on the ground, numerous lion, hyaena, giraffe, wild dog, leopard and many other species, the SLCS team is now called upon by ZAWA to deal with all cases of injured wildlife in South Luangwa. Snaring continues to wipe out large numbers of animals and without the intervention of rescue and rehabilitation we would have lost many more.
The honorary rangers system in Zambia has historically supported the former National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS), now the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA). In 1997, ZAWA began it's transition from a fully funded government body to a para statal organization which was accompained by attendant internal teething problems. With increasing poaching becoming a significant problem, concerned safari operators and individuals saw a need to complement and supplement the work being done by ZAWA, they agreed to fund a handful of scouts who could respond quickly to poaching incidents. Before 2003, SLCS scouts were known as Ratz (Rapid Action Team, Zambia) and worked informally.
In July 2003, it became obvious that there was a need to incorporate the Ratz Unit within a legal framework under the ZAWA Act in order to formalize operations. The South Luangwa Conservation Society was thus formed and now works under a Board of Trustees. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with ZAWA and also with the Kakumbi Community Resource Board with whom the village scouts have a contract of employment.
Initially SLCS focused primarily on law enforcement but over the years has identified gaps and a need for certain programs in the area, these include human wildlife conflict mitigation, sensitization campaigns, education and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. Since it's registration in 2003, SLCS is now considered an important component for conservation activities in Luangwa.
SLCS is one of the grant recipients for the 2010 Elephant Charge and was awarded over $17,000 for their conservation work in 2011. We received $10,000 for work in 2011 for anti-snaring. SLCS and the Zambian Carnivore Program are entering a team from Luangwa for the 2012 Elephant Charge later this year!!
Copyright © 2011 South Luangwa Conservation Society.
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