Honoring the heroes who rescue animals

When I first stepped foot into Zambia, located in Southern Africa over twenty years ago, I was amazed that there were people that were willing to give their entire lives to protect and rescue animals from poaching. From the first time I saw a young elephant with a wire snare wrapped around its trunk (meant to capture an antelope or Cape buffalo set by poachers), I felt helpless watching it suffer such a horrible and painful death. It is a fact that the numbers of elephants throughout Africa have diminished greatly over the last thirty years. The same can be said for lions, wild African dogs, giraffes, and so many other amazing creatures that can only be found on the African continent. But, all hope is not lost. Due to the help of organizations that dedicate themselves to helping snared animals and capturing poachers, some of the population numbers of these animals has increased within the national parks of Zambia.

Snaring is wildlife’s silent killer which quietly kills thousands of animals in the Luangwa Valley annually. Conservation South Luangwa, an NGO based in Zambia, tries to combat this by deploying regular anti-snaring patrols to remove snares from the bush, and by immobilizing and rescuing snared animals. They work closely with partners including the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DPNW), and the Zambian Carnivore Program (ZCP) to achieve this.

Because of Zambian Carnivore Program’s tireless work in three different areas in and around national parks, Zambia’s threatened wild dog, lion, cheetah, and leopard populations have been increasingly protected from illegal killings including an array of poaching methods such as shooting, snaring, and poisoning in 2022. This translates into a significant decrease in illegal deaths for carnivores across three national park ecosystems which comprises most of Zambia’s large carnivore populations.

In the Lower Zambezi National Park and surrounding areas Conservation Lower Zambezi is given enormous credit for protecting the wildlife all along the Zambezi River in Southern Zambia, with the support of the Department of National Parks, CLZ utilizes scouts on foot patrol, aerial patrols with their Cessna plane, a marine unit and a rapid deployment unit.

The Africa Hope Fund has committed itself to supporting these and many other conservation organizations over the last twenty years, but this year we are stepping up our efforts and have set a goal of raising $200,000 to distribute amongst three conservation organizations who we applaud for their tireless efforts to protect the wildlife and natural resources of the Zambian national parks.

I have had the honor of getting to know many of the amazing scouts who put their lives on the line daily to save these magnificent animals, and because of that I continue to be optimistic that we will have these African animals around for years to come!