OUR WORK
Conservation at scale
The Conservancy is fundamental to re-establishing wildlife populations and their migration routes in the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area – the biggest terrestrial cross-border conservation system in the world – connecting 36 protected areas across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Conservancy comprises 180 000 ha of communal land and lies within one of six key wildlife dispersal areas in the Kavango Zambezi landscape, namely the Chobe Zambezi dispersal area that reaches from Chobe National Park in Botswana to Kafue National Park in Zambia.
In 2012, the senior leadership of the two chiefdoms agreed that their land be developed as a wildlife conservancy to allow for the conservation of the area and viable natural resource management. It also promotes income generation through nature-based economies and tourism opportunities. On 22 October of that year, Simalaha was officially launched by Chief Sekute of the Kazungula district and Senior Chief Inyambo Yeta of the Sisheke district. They also opened the conservancy offices at Mwandi Kuta.
Peace Parks Foundation, through funding from the Swedish Postcode Lottery, MAVA Fondation pour la Nature, COmON Foundation, and various other donors, has been working alongside the people of Simalaha since the beginning – with a focus on improving the social, economic and environmental circumstances of the region.
Rewilding
In 2013, a wildlife sanctuary measuring 22 000 ha was established as part of Simalaha. The first wildlife translocation to the Simalaha Community Conservancy took place on 6 October 2013, and since then, 2 145 animals of 13 species have been rewilded there, including red lechwe, puku, eland, sable, hartebeest, waterbuck, roan antelope, buffalo and giraffe.
Growing animal populations in the sanctuary mean that they will soon require more space. To this end, remote sensing was used in 2019 to identify human settlements and agricultural expansion in order to plan for the sanctuary’s boundary extension. Based on an analysis of the information, the sanctuary was expanded to 400 km2.
Ecological linkages
Eight buffaloes, likely originating from Kafue National Park or the Mulobezi Game Management Area, migrated from the northern part of the conservancy in search of water. In 2023, there were an estimated 1 117 new births, with a significant increase in wildebeest.
Combatting wildlife crime
Thanks to MAVA, Twenty-two community members were trained as wildlife scouts, locally known as Village Scouts, to protect the animals in the wildlife sanctuary. They carry out regular patrols to monitor wildlife in the conservancy. Since 2015, there have been 2,925 patrols over 561,198 hours. Because the communities have really taken ownership of conservation efforts, there have been very limited incidents of poaching since the establishment of the sanctuary. There was only one poaching incident in 2023, and there have been 7 in 2024. As of now, there are 36 scouts deployed in Simalaha, and the average number of square kilometres a ranger needs to manage has dropped from 83 km2 in 2014 to 36 km2 in 2024 (area protected ratio).
Community development
The Simalaha Community Conservancy Trust was registered on 11 January 2019. Village action groups appointed 10 group chairpersons. These chairpersons, together with nominated members from the traditional authorities, form the Board of Trustees. A core purpose of the Trust is to ensure transparent and efficient management of the Conservancy and to ensure that benefits accrued through socio-economic activities are shared equitably between all chiefdoms and community members.
Peace Parks Foundation, in partnership with the Simalaha Community Conservancy and the Namibia Nature Foundation, has established the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area’s first community-managed transboundary fishery project. This initiative has established fish reserves and protected critical fish breeding sites on the Namibian and Zambian sides of the Zambezi River.
Conservation agriculture provides people with food security and balanced nutrition, while assisting in the restoration of the ecology, 1530 farmers were trained in conservation agriculture and supported by the distribution of various seeds, cassava cuttings and manure.
In an effort to develop community seed banks for climate-smart agriculture, an input payback system has been introduced. This is being managed through the village action groups and contact farmers, whereby farmers who receive inputs from the programme are expected to pay back from their harvest, either by cash or in kind.
In order to provide all-year field irrigation, nearly 500 treadle pumps have been provided to farmers. Ten boreholes were also drilled. The location and depth of these were scientifically determined using geophysical research so as to ensure that the water provided is not saline.
Communities in and around the Simalaha Community Conservancy typically use wood or charcoal for cooking purposes. The health risks associated with inhaling smoke from these open fires, as well as time lost on collecting wood, are some of the daily challenges of women living in rural areas. To address these, Peace Parks collaborated with Commonland to supply 9954 fuel-efficient cookstoves to surrounding communities.
The Herding for Health programme in this region is targeting four pilot areas for implementation: Magumwi, Sibullo, Mapani, and Makanga/Mabumbu, where the number of participating cattle has increased to 1 029. The cattle are owned by 34 farmers.
Floods and Bugs: Herding For Health Cattle Dipping in Simalaha
In 2023, Simalaha hosted a regional meeting for community-based organisations from southern Africa. The event brought together more than 300 people, showcasing the community conservancy model as a way of ensuring coexistence between people and nature in the region.
Conservation finance
Income from nature-based economies was identified as a critical component of the Conservancy. This includes protecting the newly restocked wildlife populations for tourism purposes, as well as potentially the commercial management of wildlife as overseen by the Simalaha Community Conservancy Trust. To this end, Peace Parks Foundation presented the community with 200 disease-free buffalo in 2018. Providing disease-free buffalo to Simalaha was crucial, as this member of Africa’s popular Big-5 will not only boost the tourism offering but will also generate income through the sale of the offspring of the buffalo to other areas in Zambia.
The first tourism operator opened for business in the Conservancy in August 2020, providing luxury tented accommodation and horse-back safaris. Simalaha benefits from concession fees, as well as the training and employment of local members in the construction and running of the lodge.
