Conservation Leadership

Too often the sustainability of research and conservation efforts is compromised because local communities are not effectively involved. We undertake a comprehensive multi-level approach to help ensure sustainability by training, educating, sponsoring, and employing young Zambian wildlife professionals from the secondary school level through to international graduate programs. Collectively, this helps to ensure that Zambia’s best and brightest have the opportunity to contribute their talents to wildlife conservation now and into the future.

Conservation Clubs

To foster passion for nature conservation and help provide students with skills and experience for advanced education and employment upon graduation, ZCP hosts Conservation Clubs with local primary and secondary schools at each of our field sites. We emphasize adventure-based learning, wherein addition to traditional classroom-based learning and activities, students also conduct their own scientific research in collaboration with ZCP and DNPW. This helps provide students with key skills in computer literacy, technology, critical thinking, writing, and public speaking. Many of the students in this programme have continued in conservation and advanced education, with a number working for ZCP full-time upon graduation. We work with a number of educational partner organizations, including Chipembele Wildlife Educational Trust and the Kafue TreeTops School Camp.

Citizen Science

Citizen science initiatives can play key roles in conservation, particularly across vast landscapes with low-density and wide-ranging threatened species. Given that safari operators are out on the landscape every day observing carnivores, we work with a strong network of guides, guests, and lodge owners across the country on a number of collaborative monitoring projects, such as our Luangwa Valley Carnivore Monitoring Project, and the Kafue Carnivore Coalition in partnership with Panthera. These data and collaborations have greatly expanded our knowledge and ability to monitor and conserve these species.

Community Conservation

As part of our community outreach and education work, ZCP hosts an annual Carnivore Cup Football Tournament across the chiefdoms of theLuangwa Valley. The multi-week tournament provides an excellent opportunity to engage the local community and promote conservation. The championship is held in concert with Conservation South Luangwa’s Annual Fun Run, which attracts more than 5,000 community members and has been attended by Guests of Honor such as Zambian Football Legend Kalusha Bwayla. ZCP Ecologist and Education Coordinator Henry Mwape also directs the Mimbulu (local word for African wild dog) Boys Football Academy — a local boys football team that serves as community ambassadors for carnivore conservation. In addition, ZCP works with local theater group SEKA (Sensitisation and Education through the Kunda Arts) to promote community understanding of our collaborative conservation work through humor and theater.

Conservation Biologist Training Programme

With long-term projects across the country, ZCP’s field sites offer unique opportunities for aspiring Zambian conservationists to acquire practical field experience in conservation biology and ecological research and monitoring, which is particularly valuable given the scarcity of field-based courses and training courses. A wide array of skills are needed for such work, and students undergo intensive training in both the theory and practice of ecological research, as well as receiving hands-on training in Land Rover and motorbike servicing, repair, recovery and 4x4 driving skills, Wilderness First Aid and CPR, and community outreach and education. Following training, students are often employed full-time on our ZCP field teams; many of our current and former staff and graduate students are former trainees from this programme, and many have graduated from our Conservation Club programmes (see above) before enlisting in the CBTP.

Women in Wildlife Conservation

Women are underrepresented in the conservation sector in general, and in conservation science in particular. Our Women in Wildlife Conservation programme is functionally similar to our Conservation Biologist Training Programme, but is specifically aimed to increase participation and involvement by women, for women. Developed by 2016 National Geographic Emerging Explorer Thandiwe Mweetwa, trainees are paired with female mentors from ZCP senior management team to receive intensive individualized instruction in all aspects of field-based conservation work, community education, and outreach.

Wildlife Veterinary Training Programme

ZCP is involved in an array of wildlife veterinary work, ranging from immobilizations for de-snarings and research purposes, to disease mitigation, and providing medical intervention to poisoned animals. This programme is aimed at providing field-based opportunities for prospective and current Zambian veterinary students interested in pursuing careers in wildlife conservation. Through this programme they gain hands-on experience and skills under the tutelage of ZCP-CSL Vet Dr. Mwamba Sichande in Luangwa, ZCP Vet Dr. Michelo Mungolo in Kafue, ZCP-AP Vet Dr. Denis Siantumbu in Liuwa. Trainees assist in all aspects of our broad and diverse veterinary work, and participants in the programme come from a variety of backgrounds: Conservation Club graduates, entering veterinary students, and students currently in school and assisting on their term breaks. Collectively the programme has greatly assisted local students interested in pursuing careers in veterinary conservation.

Advanced Education and Professional Training

Together with the support of our donor partners we help provide opportunities for advanced education and professional training in conservation. These opportunities are provided for ZCP and DNPW team members as well as partner organizations and graduates of our various training programmes. Support ranges from scholarships for diploma programmes at the Southern Africa Wildlife College, to degrees in wildlife and resource management at Zambian universities, to Wildlife Immobilization Courses (for DNPW veterinarians), to supporting advanced education for the children of DNPW scouts. 

Graduate Education

With some of the longest-running ecological projects in the region, ZCP’s collaborative work provides opportunities for Zambian wildlife professionals to obtain graduate degrees at top international institutions. To date we have graduated three Masters and Ph.D. students from Montana State University and University of Arizona, with three more currently enrolled or slated for study. Students work on an array of pressing carnivore conservation issues and have received prestigious scholarships for their work - including Fellowships from Fulbright, Karen Fuller, and the Wildlife Conservation Network - and have occupied important conservation positions in Zambia upon graduation.