By Charles Mpaka:
In a boost to community-driven conservation, a local organisation which works in villages around Kasungu National Park has secured about K316 million ($185,000) in funding to implement livelihood activities.
Kasungu Wildlife Conservation for Community Development Association (Kawiccoda) has received the financing from the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through African Nature Based Tourism (NBT) Platform.
With the funding, the organisation will implement climate-smart farming activities for people living within a 5-kilometre radius around Kasungu National Park.
The objective of the project is to enhance food and income security of the people and reduce negative livelihood coping activities such as encroachment, hunting and other unauthorized methods of harvesting resources inside the park, according to the platform.
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The funding comes in response to findings of over 600 surveys which the African NBT Platform conducted in Southern Africa to determine the impact of Covid-19 on local communities and nature-based small and medium tourism enterprises.
In the case of Kasungu National Park, the survey found that the pandemic which hit tourism globally led to a drop in tourism revenue from the park.
This also led to decline in revenue for nearby local markets where many women and the youth earn their living.
The organisation has a revenue-sharing agreement with the government. It gets 25 percent of revenue the park makes every year from tourism. Kawiccoda spends the money on community projects.
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Board chairperson for Kawiccoda, Malidadi Langa, said community-based organisations are important in conservation because they own and live with natural resources like forests, wildlife and fish.
“They also bear the cost of living in proximity with dangerous wild animals like elephants which can destroy crops, and houses of extremely poor people who sometimes, like the recent cases in Kasungu National Park, get killed,” he said in an email.
Langa described communities as “the first line of defence” when it comes to prevention of poaching and encroachment of protected areas.
They should therefore benefit from these natural resources and national parks which they protect through tourism revenue, he said.
“Local communities and their organisations like Kawiccoda need policy support to help move community tourism enterprises up the tourism value chain and earn more revenues,” he said.
He said the African NBT Platform survey has helped Kawiccoda to understand the impact of Covid-19 on community tourism enterprises, marginalisation of local communities in nature-based tourism and the specific challenges people face when it comes to benefiting from tourism.
“Based on these lessons, Kawiccoda is now well equipped in terms of how it can better support community nature-based industries and help them generate more income,” he said.
He described investment in community livelihoods as a smart conservation strategy. He said food and income insecurity are key drivers of encroachment, deforestation, poaching, and illegal wildlife trade.
According to the African NBT Platform survey report, communities around protected areas are subjected to multiple hazards.
“The global pandemic intersected with the existing climate change and biodiversity crises in the region and created compounding impacts on the most vulnerable, especially for the nature-based tourism sector and the communities that rely on it for their economic and social well-being,” reads the report.
Kawiccoda will work in partnership with Resource Africa in implementing the activities.
The African NBT Platform works in connecting funders to communities and small and medium enterprises involved in conservation and tourism in 11 countries in eastern and southern Africa.
Covering 2,100 square kilometres, Kasungu National Park is Malawi’s second largest after Nyika National Park.
