Saving Nkhotakota Game Reserve

The plunder visited upon Nkhotakota Game Reserve in central Malawi and measures to halt it have been well documented. But why are things not improving? I visited the reserve recently and wonders whether the latest intervention will change anything.

here are only about 500 elephants remaining in Nkhotakota Game Reserve, the largest game reserve in Malawi spanning 1800 square kilometres between the districts of Mzimba, Ntchisi, Kasungu and Nkhotakota itself.

As this article is being read, some people are tracking the elephants, killing the big animals to extract the valuable ivory. Most of the poachers are foreign, but are harboured and shown the way around the game reserve by locals.

On Thursday last week, a Chinese man was found trying to smuggle Ivory at Kamuzu International Airport. He had disguised the ivory as a walking stick and his foolish concealing mistake is just unfortunate.

There are many of his friends who are not discovered.

Poaching

Alex Chunga, reserve manager in the Department of Parks and Wildlife, agrees and contends that there is a big poaching problem in Nkhotakota.

“We have people fishing along Bua River using poisons such as insecticides and herbs. We have illegal loggers and hunters of big animals such as elephants which are targeted for Ivory,” said Chunga.

Whatever happens, it seems the community is at the centre of the degradation of the reserve. Why would anyone want to do away with a good thing such as the reserve? Exactly the question Nation Online put to Traditional Authority Mphonde who heads several communities who live on the fringes of the reserve.

“It is sheer vandalism and it’s just a few pockets,” said Mphonde, admitting that people in his area have been culprits in the plunder of fauna and flora in the reserve.

Member of Parliament for Nkhotakota Central, Edwin Banda, was also at a loss for words when contacted to make sense of the hooliganism of the communities surrounding the reserve.

“We have enough laws on poaching, but our standards in terms of enforcement are low. You can carry and walk about with a dead bushbuck or antelope and no one would confront you. So far, foreigners sponsoring poaching have reduced, it’s just us now.

“We used to have many tourists, but the numbers have gone down. You see, the big five attract tourists most and with the increase in the number of lions in the jungle there is need to allow small animals such as antelopes to increase so as to feed the lions which will in turn attract more tourists,” said Banda.

He pointed a big finger at his constituents, saying they frequent the park too much, that they lay snares and are the ones that give directions and harbour to international poachers.

Any solution?

T/A Mphonde observed that attitudes have changed and people are now aware of the good that the reserve can bring.

Chunga said government has changed its approach is now engaging villagers in protecting the game reserve.

“There is what we call collaborative management in which we establish structures among communities around the reserve to help in conserving it. There is a shared responsibility and shared benefits – we allow them to reap benefits such as honey, reeds, grass and mushrooms and so far the relationship is going well,” he said.

In return for the benefits they reap, the communities are expected to report poachers and truly own the natural endowment.

But Chunga admits that his department has little resources to effectively rally all communities around the vast reserve.

For MP Banda, his solutions are more militant.

“What we need to do is raise our standards in terms of enforcement. We should ask charcoal sellers where they planted the trees they burnt into charcoal. People should know the gravity of the need to protect the reserve.

“We should ban bush meat and control entry into the reserve. I mean, why would anyone go into a reserve? It’s a reserve for the very reason that people should leave it alone,” said Banda.

The reserve is run on a concession basis by two players, one of them being Tongole Wilderness Lodge, a luxurious lodge perched 28 kilometres deep into the reserve.

Engaging locals

For Tongole, the best way to pump sense into the locals is by engaging them, helping them out and slowly making them realise that the reserve is important to them and that if they conserve it they can actually reap perennial gains from it.

Apart from employing the locals, Tongole, through its social responsibility division, Tongole Foundation, is out and about raising funds to support communities around the reserves in many ways such as building classroom blocks and supplying books, among other initiatives.

Last week, Tongole handed over a K9 million (about $27 000) school block to Mwala wa Tongole Primary School, a move Bentry Kalanga, managing director of Tongole Wilderness Lodge, described as important in efforts to reach out to the communities.

“This is us trying to build a good relationship with the community. If they see the good things that the reserve can bring them, they will own it. We are doing this so that they see it as a change element,” said Kalanga.

To land the funding for the school, Kalanga revealed that they took one of the guests to the community and he offered to help with the school block after he saw students learning under trees.

The guest, Ray Eyre, an ex-banker who now charters out ships and planes, returned to Malawi to officially open the school he bankrolled. Thanks to him, pupils at the school will now start sitting on desks in spacious classrooms.

The million kwacha question, however, is whether things such as the school will translate into the community cutting ties with international poachers, withdrawing from laying snares for antelopes and leaving the natural trees alone.

Only time will tell.