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The Zimbabwe government adopted the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources concept in the early 80s as a way of encouraging communities living adjacent to national parks to live in harmony with wild animals, which sometimes attacked them as well as destroyed their crops. Campfire director Charles Jonga told Parliament that there serious conflict between humans and animals in Hwange with the Rural District Council theonly stakeholder dealing with the problem.

“Problem animal control is a burden for the Hwange Rural District Council alone, a task that cannot be successfully accomplished using income that is clearly inadequate at present,” he said.

“To this end, Government is being requested to explore ways of compelling existing tourism players (private lodges and hotels) and all wildlife based non-governmental organisations and Research programmes in Hwange district that are benefiting from the same animals which cause local people problems to contribute towards conflict mitigation through a levy of at least 3 percent of their income,” he said.

Mr Jonga said additional cash injection would reinforce positive attitudes towards wildlife by communities alongside financial benefits and community development projects.

“The net conservation result/ benefit is that fewer animals, especially elephant and lion, will get killed in order to address human and wildlife conflict,” he said.

Operation of Campfire without donor funding since 2003 has been a defining moment for the program and has to some extent impacted negatively on the country’s conservation image internationally.

Mr Jonga said at the moment, the Campfire Association and the Hwange RDC had embarked on strengthening wildlife management and tourism in Sidinda ward (Hwange), as well as improving human and wildlife conflict mitigation throughout the district using donor funding.

“However presently, CAMPFIRE Association is involved in the EU-funded wildlife in Livelihood Development (WILD) programme ($3,5million) led by the Sustainable Agriculture Technology , a local NGO, which seeks to pilot some models of community based wildlife management and game ranching in CAMPFIRE areas (Chiredzi, Chipinge and Nyaminyami districts) over three years,” he said adding that the project had however experienced delays in its startup activities since 2012.

The chosen model involved community game ranching, which is supported by other activities such as improved livestock and crop production, in conjunction with the development of other income streams and value addition. – New Ziana.