Luangwe National Park

The North Luangwe Conservation Project

Next issue - The Market for Rhino Horn >>

The North Luangwe Conservation Project (NLCP) was established in 1986 by two Americans, Mark and Delia Owns to rehabilitate and conserve the 2,400 square mile North Luangwe National Park with the ultimate goal of developing low impact eco-tourism in the area. At the time all of the parks rhinos had been poached and over 1000 elephants per year were being killed. The NLCP focused on a number of priorities.

Local NGOs and Conservation

• Improving the efficiency of local game scouts through providing trucks, food, and patrol equipment, radio communication, medicines, cash incentive and a school for the education of their children.
• Starting up the NLCP Community Development Programme. Fourteen villages in the park that collaborated with poachers were initially targeted. Financial support was given to small business starting up to provide basic goods and services to the villagers.
• Later NLCP started up wildlife clubs that funded the villages to purchase maize mills. The operation of these not only provided employment but also enabled to community to satisfy the communities' demand for maize meal. Money was also spent on educating local communities to grow, harvest and refine sunflower seeds. Both of these initiatives were important as they reduced the pressure on local villagers to resort to poaching to generate income to purchase refined maize and cooking oil.
• NLCP also encouraged villagers to start up a number of cottage industries such as carpentry, fish farming, bee keeping and rat trap makers. Funds were made available to support farmers to grow protein rich food reducing the need for poached meat. These reduced the need resort to collaborating with the poachers.
• The NLCP's Education Programme funded an Education Officer to go into schools and educate the young people about the long-term impact of poaching and the need for conservation.
• The NLCP Rural Health Programme taught first aid, preventative medicine, AIDS prevention, birth control techniques and general nutrition and health care.

Zambian Roads

The Project has been most successful. From September 1994 to May 1997 not one elephant had been killed in the project area and the population of elephants in the North Luangwe National Park had actually increased. The population of other animals also grown. The NLCP has become a model of conservation that is being adopted by other villages in the area of the Luangwe Valley.

Next issue - The Market for Rhino Horn >>

Related Glossary Items:
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

Related Issues:
The Rhino Horn Market
NGOs and Wildlife Management

Related Theories:
Sustainability
The Multiplier Principle