Lengwe National Park Educates Surrounding Communities on Wildlife Conservation and Self-Protection
Group Village Headman Mphamba expresses concern over other people who are destroying the fencing at the park, leaving their lives at risk of being attacked by wild animals.
Malawi: Lengwe National Park, located in the Shire Valley district of Chikwawa, is educating the surrounding communities on how to protect the environment and wildlife animals, writes Comfort Bulangete.
The Division Manager for Parks and Wildlife in the Shire Valley, Wisely Kawaye, explains that the community is being engaged to participate in the conservation of wildlife and the environment at the park through the use of a community extension element.
They also allow the community to harvest some of the resources found in the park, such as lemons, mangoes, and baobab fruits, and also use glass for thatching their houses, so that the community knows the importance of conserving the resources that are there.
Kawaye states, “We are also conducting awareness campaigns in the community surrounding the Park so that they understand the value of Wildlife that take part in conservation, we are also tipping the Community on how they can take care and manage themselves from Wild animals when they have bounced the fence, so that they may stay alert and awake as we may know Wildlife animals are at times bad hence they can also remove the life of a person, but again at the same point we know there are some people who are not taking the message seriously and people who are found poaching are being prosecuted, the community sensitization Campaigns are helping hence we have noticed that the community is now supporting us."
Group Village Headman Mphamba expresses concern over other people who are destroying the fencing at the park, leaving their lives at risk of being attacked by wild animals.
He calls for more organizations to intervene in sensitizing the community on how they can conserve the park and also the benefits of conserving wildlife.
Peter Simau, one of the villagers from Mphampha, says that they were educated in their village on how best to take care of the park and also conserve wildlife.
He states that at the end of the sensitization meetings, they received goats, which are helping them in their day-to-day lives.
Lengwe National Park is conducting sensitization campaigns with funding from the Shire Valley Transformation Project.