| Grantee | Musekese Conservation |
|---|---|
| Type | Protected Area Management |
| Grant Amount | $390,000 |
| Duration | 5 years |
Capacity Building for Effective Law Enforcement to Secure Core Areas of Kafue National Park, Zambia
Musekese Conservation is a not-for-profit conservation initiative that provides support to Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to secure core populations of big cats and other wildlife from poaching, ensuring their long-term viability in contributing to both conservation and sustainable tourism. To date the Lion Recovery Fund has provided Musekese Conservation with five grants that have helped build and strengthen an effective anti-poaching presence in the Musekese-Lumbeya (ML) Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ). This critical support has facilitated the creation of four full-time anti-poaching teams as well as an aerial anti-poaching unit. As a result, the project has seen a drastic reduction in illegal activities within the ML IPZ, laying the foundations for lions and other large carnivores to recover. The research unit created in 2020 has also received support from LRF which has played a key role in analyzing the effectiveness of anti-poaching efforts from an ecological point of view. Initial trends suggest that the lion population has adequately stabilized and is poised to sharply increase in 2022 based on current population dynamics and the significant recovery of smaller, medium-sized predators as a result of an increasing prey-base.