Securing Areas for Large Carnivores in Kafue NP

Securing High Value Areas for Large Carnivores in Kafue National Park

Panthera has recently secured an agreement with the Zambian government to provide financial and technical support for law enforcement in the vast (8,600 square mile) Kafue National Park (which is part of a 25,600 square mile complex of protected areas). The LRF provided Panthera with a grant that supported the salaries of community scouts who augmented the efforts of the existing government scout force in the central area of Kafue. A second grant was then issued to allow for the deployment of additional teams in the Busanga Plains area of northern Kafue. Together these efforts are having a significant impact on depressing poaching in the area of operation. A third grant was issued in December 2019, when it was agreed that funding leftover from the halted Panthera Limpopo project would be transferred to their work in Kafue National Park. A fourth grant was issued in September 2020 to enable focussed monitoring of lions in Kafue National Park and to permit regular snare-sweeps in the areas in which they inhabit, thus providing intensive protection from poaching. A fifth grant was issued in December to provide extended support for the lion monitoring and snare-sweeping efforts. In July and October 2021, LRF issued a sixth and seventh grant to this work to enable Panthera extend support for law enforcement to southern Kafue NP and the neighbouring Sichifulo and Mafunta Game Management Areas, thus substantially increasing the effective safe zones for lions in the ecosystem.