Zambia grapples with human-animal conflicts

On April 11, 2013, villagers from a remote area in southern Zambia's Kazungula district woke up to a rude shock when they found that a rampaging elephant had invaded and terrorized the village, destroying vegetation and leaving three people dead.

The marauding elephant, which was believed to have been wounded, came from a nearby national park, the Mosi-O-Tunya National Park, enraged and in the process destroying everything that crossed its path.

The gunshot wound was believed to have been inflicted by poachers.

A traditional leader, Chief Sekute, who revealed the incident to local media, said the villagers are still living in fear after the incident which happened within a space of two hours in three different villages.

According to the traditional leader, the elephant killed its first victim, a woman aged 59 around 6 a.m. and later went on to kill the second victim around 8 a.m. from another village before completing its mission by killing a 53-year-old man in another village.

While expressing gratitude that the beast was killed by wildlife officers, the traditional leader expressed concern at the increasing human-animal conflict in his area.

The villagers are now living in fear following the macabre incident which has left many shocked and still in a sense of disbelief. This has also increased calls for more to be done to deal with the problem of conflicts between human beings and animals.

The human-animal conflict, which has been prevalent in Zambia, especially among communities living near game management areas or those living near rivers, has seen destruction to crops while some villagers have been killed or maimed in the process.

Though the animal was gunned down by officers from the country's wildlife protection body, the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), the trauma it has left lingers on among communities of these remote villages and increases calls for more efforts to be applied in addressing the conflicts between human beings and animals.

The incident is shocking because it came barely a few weeks after another person was killed by another elephant in another district of the same province.

As Zambia joins the rest of the world in commemorating the International Mother Earth Day which falls on April 22, the need to address this conflict, which has been part of the Zambian scenery over the years, cannot be over-emphasized.

International Mother Earth Day recognizes that the earth and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance and the day was also established to raise awareness that humans have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature.

But the conflicts that have arisen as a result of human beings and animals living close to each other indicated that solutions have to be found on how to harmonize this and how the two can co- exist.

History has shown that conflicts between human beings and animals have been among the main threats to the continued survival of many species not only in Zambia but in different parts of the world which calls for concerted efforts to find a lasting solution.

The impact of this conflict has resulted in, among other things, loss of crops, livestocks, and property and sometimes lives while the animals, which are already endangered, are often killed in retaliation to prevent future conflicts.

And people have different opinions of what should be done to tackle this growing problem.

"These animals are normally peaceful and it is possible to co- exist with human beings but the human-animal conflict is mainly caused by poachers. When these animals are wounded by the poachers, they become aggressive. So ZAWA should deal with the problem of poaching," Edwin Hambulo, from Mumba district of central Zambia which is near a game park said.

According to him, the elephant population in southern Zambia's Mosi-O-Tunya Game Park has increased over the years because some of the animals are crossing from neighboring Zimbabwe, hence making it a hotspot for poachers to hunt the animals.

The solution, he said, is to move some of the elephants out of the area to other game management areas in other parts of the country.

But the government is of the view that human beings are at the center of creating this conflict as they have been encroaching and settling in natural habitats for wildlife.

According to Harry Kalaba, Deputy Minister in the Vice- President's Office which deals with disasters, people settling in and near game management areas are at the center of this conflict.

Some people, who have settled in the Kafue National Park, the country's largest national park, have since been given an ultimatum to leave the game management areas.

The minister, who was on a conducted tour of some communities that have settled in the park recently, told the villagers to move from the area in order to avoid the growing problem of conflict with the animals.

According to him, about 9,311 people have encroached into the park and they have been ordered to move out by July this year.

Zambian laws ban people from settling in game management areas as they are considered protected areas.

The country's wildlife governing body has also acknowledged the growing problem of conflicts between human beings and animals in game management areas but has indicated that it is overwhelmed with the problem.

"It is ZAWA's responsibility to respond to the human-animal conflicts where people share land with wildlife. ZAWA has done everything possible to ensure that we attend to these problems but then you find that sometimes we are overwhelmed by the number of reports that we receive," Wilfred Moonga, the organization's public relations officer said.

The situation has been exacerbated by the shortage of staff in the wildlife governing organization, he added.

But Southern Province Minister Daniel Munkombwe has advised the organization to consider coming up with pragmatic solutions to tackle the human-animal conflicts in game management areas before more lives are lost.

"The ZAWA should have a system of rapid response so that when an issue like this one takes place, we should be able to respond quickly and assist people," he said when he visited the area where the marauding elephant killed people, according to state media.

As Zambia grapples with the problem of human-animal conflicts, a lasting solution is urgently required and one of the solutions could be increased awareness programs for communities in areas where human-animal conflicts are likely to arise.

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