Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ)

School Visits

Students and teachers from the communities spend four nights and three days at CLZ’s Environmental Education Centre based just outside the National Park. During the visit children are engaged in various lessons and activities focused on several conservation topics. In addition, children and teachers were taken into the Lower Zambezi National Park on game drives and boat cruises to interact with and learn about wildlife on a more personal and positive level.

Outreach Programme

CLZ’s environmental educator carries out five outreaches a year, one outreach per project area. He travels to each project area and visits each school that CLZ works with to distribute the Nzou Environmental Education Teachers Curriculum, Student Activity books and HIV/AIDS Health Curriculum to each Conservation Club. In addition, lessons with each Conservation Club include viewing a wildlife documentary to encourage and engage the clubs in conservation topics and discussions.

Teacher Training

Each year, CLZ invites teachers from the Conservation Clubs to attend a teacher training workshop at CLZ’s Environmental Education Centre. This is a vital part of the environmental education program, as it ensures that teachers are trained to teach their clubs on conservation issues and that they too have a strong understanding of the topics. They engage in conservation lessons, discussions and debates as well as also going out into the park on game drives and boat cruises.

Health and Wellness

CLZ’s Environmental Education Programme includes lessons on HIV/ AIDS and surveys from the School Visits have shown that a majority of students received most of the information they knew about HIV/ AIDS and how to protect themselves from CLZ lessons. Part of the School Visits is also focussed on health and wellness for female students, giving them the opportunity to share concerns and ask questions in a safe and open setting.

ITC-based Learning

CLZ’s Environmental Education Programme implements exciting technological advances with the development and installation of CLZ’s curriculum onto tablets. In partnership with iSchool, CLZ developed five interactive modules–filled with colourful graphics and vital information on important conservation issues. The students enjoy using them to learn even more about the Lower Zambezi, its threats and sustainable solutions.

Student Scholarships and University Internships

CLZ provides scholarships to several students to pursue degrees in Environmental Education and Conservation at universities across Zambia. CLZ also annually brings in a recent graduate with a conservation or education related degree to assist with the School Visits and help with Monitoring and Evaluation by entering and analysing data for the Environmental Education Programme.

In the 1990’s, increased poaching became a significant threat to wildlife in the Lower Zambezi. This prompted concerned local safari operators and other stakeholders to recognise the need for organised support for ZAWA wildlife protection operations in the Lower Zambezi area. CLZ was formed in 1994 to assist ZAWA (then known as National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWS)) and the community with conservation efforts.In the fight for the protection of Lower Zambezi’s wildlife, CLZ works closely with DNPW—providing financial, logistical and technological support to ensure operations are fully equipped and ensure the Wildlife Police Officers and Community Scouts have everything they need to stand strong against wildlife crime. The Wildlife Protection Programme has a number of projects that all work towards the goal of protection:

DNPW Patrols

CLZ supports the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) in their mandate to carry out foot patrols in the Lower Zambezi National Park and surrounding Game Management Areas.

Community Scout Patrols

Employed under both CLZ and the local Community Resource Boards (CRBs), the Community Scout patrol teams carry out wildlife protection patrols in the park and Game Management Areas under the leadership of a DNPW Wildlife Police Officer.

Aerial Patrols

CLZ’s ‘eyes-in-the-skies’, a Cessna 172 (‘9J-CLZ’), carries out regular aerial patrols over the Lower Zambezi National Park and Game Management Areas to detect illegal activities and for monitoring wildlife movements. The plane is an essential tool in spotting illegal activities, which can then be responded to by patrol teams on the ground.DNPW and CLZ Dog Unit

The Lower Zambezi canine unit is made up of four handlers and two dogs. The unit moves between trafficking ‘hotspots’ in the area surrounding the park to strangle channels of movement of illegal wildlife products, as well as acting as a deterrent. The highly trained dogs are imprinted with several scents including ivory, pangolin scales, bushmeat, firearms and ammunition.

Investigations and Intelligence Unit

In partnership with DNPW, CLZ supports the Investigations and Intelligence Unit (IIU). The unit carries out regular and continuous monthly covert operations in the Lower Zambezi, relying on the establishment of an effective informer network and officers being planted in the communities.

Marine Unit

In 2022, CLZ held the opening ceremony for a newly built Marine Unit Operational Base and the renovated Chongwe Confluence. DNPW and CLZ began construction to refresh this entrance to the park in 2021—adding new officer housing, ablutions, guest check-in area, carpark, jetty, and base for the Marine Unit. This recently established Marine Unit responds to threats to the Lower Zambezi National Park by river and increase capacity to monitor cross-border illegal activities.

Rapid Deployment Team

The Rapid Deployment Team (RDT) was established in 2018 and is a 10-man Unit consisting of DNPW Officers and CLZ Community Scouts. The RDT responds to intelligence in relation to poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking and works to intercept and break down trafficking routes used to smuggle endangered species in and out of Zambia. They work in close collaboration with the Investigations and Intelligence Units, and through combined efforts, they have had significant successes.

Pro-nature Enterprises Project

CLZ’s fisheries project has been integrated into the new Pro-nature Enterprises project which promotes sustainable and socio-economically inclusive fisheries co-management. Funded by AFD – Agence Française de Développement and FFEM and implemented by Conservation International, Africa Field Division, and CLZ, the project aims to strengthen community engagement in sustainable natural resource management, anti-poaching efforts and integrate conservation and compatible land – water uses.

Legal Assistant

In 2018 CLZ employed a Legal Assistant to support DNPW and the National Prosecutions Authority with wildlife crime related cases in courts surrounding the Lower Zambezi. The Legal Assistant is part of Wildlife Crime Prevention’s Judicial Program and has helped manage, advise and collect data which, in the years to come, can be used for a quantitative analysis of wildlife crime cases. The Legal Assistant works to ensure effective legal justice as well as deterrent sentencing to aid in reducing levels of wildlife crime in the Lower Zambezi and trafficking across the world.

Human Wildlife Conflict Patrols

CLZ deploys Community Scout Units into the communities to respond to Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) incidents—providing trained and armed responses to community reports of HWC incidents and assisting in property and personal protection. Trained in elephant behaviour, the Community Scout Units promote more positive attitudes towards living safely with elephants and hippos without the need for fatal measures.

Chilli Farming

CLZ promotes the use of chilli-fences as a mitigation method to deter elephants from their fields. Farmers are encouraged to grow chilli as a ‘cash’ crop that elephants will have no desire to eat. Alternatively, farmers can grow the chilies around their fields and then use the chillies for elephant conflict mitigation. The chilli programme is supported by annual workshops that CLZ conducts on the theory and practice of using chillies to protect fields.

Anti-Snare Campaign

CLZ and Awely host an Anti-Snare Campaign on an annual basis. CLZ’s Environmental Educator, Besa Kaoma, Operations Manager Rabson Tembo and Awely Red Cap Stephen Kalio spend three days in three villages of the Chiawa Game Management Area. The campaign focuses on the issue of snaring and how if you ‘remove a snare you can save a life’.

Rubatano Day

‘Rubatano’ (Unity in the local language Goba) is CLZ’s annual community sports day that brings together local netball and football teams to battle it out on the pitch for the grand prize of being the strongest, fastest and fittest team in the area. The event is aimed to promote relationships between the local community members, DNPW, conservation, lodges and other stakeholders outside of the law enforcement realm with which CLZ is often associated.

Hippo Fences

CLZ assist the communities to install electric and solar powered hippo fences for their effectiveness in keeping hippos out of vegetable gardens along the river’s edge. These fences, set up by CLZ, run around local farms which grow crops such as chilies, okra, eggplant, peppers, pumpkin and more all year round. To date, they have successfully deterred hippos (and elephants).

Anti-Snare Campaigns

CLZ has hosted Anti-Snare Campaigns since 2015. CLZ’s Environmental Educator spends three days in villages and the campaigns focus on the issue of snaring and the value of conservation. The campaign is filled with drama activities and intellectual discussions about the effects snaring has on wildlife and in-turn tourism and the economy of the Lower Zambezi.

Clean Cooking Stoves

CLZ’s community empowerment programme includes the provision of cleaner and more energy efficient cooking stoves to people in the villages surrounding the park. The stoves help limit the use of charcoal and promote more sustainable use of natural resources. Zambia has an extremely high rate of deforestation with one of major drivers being charcoal production.

Tank Stands

CLZ helps facilitate the installation of a tanks, stands, and solar water pump systems to provide water for a women’s groups of farmers. These systems give the women a safer method for sourcing water—limiting time spent along the river and decreasing the chances for human-wildlife conflict. The farmers are also provided training on best farming practices which along with the improved agriculture system will yield higher crops and income.

Women’s Groups

Women are still an marginalised group—especially when considering natural resource management. However, it is the women who are left in the communities with the children and therefore have a constant interaction and influence on the local environment. CLZ feels that it is integral to support women empowerment and currently supports several women’s groups to develop skills, income, and ownership through sustainable businesses.