Zimbabwe big cat project

Background
Dr Andrew Loveridge initiated the WildCRU Hwange Big Cat Project in 1999 to address concerns over what were thought to be unsustainably high levels of trophy hunting of lions in the areas surrounding Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  Experience in other parts of the world has shown that using wildlife as a resource (especially flagship species, such as lions) has the potential to benefit local communities and contribute to global goals of biodiversity management and conservation, but only if populations are used sustainably.  The lion project set out to investigate the sustainability of lion hunting practices around Hwange and has collected ten years worth of scientific data on the conservation status and trends in the lion population in the National Park and surrounding areas.

Building on this experience, since 2008 the Project has extended its focus to include a study of the impact of trophy hunting of leopards in areas surrounding Hwange National Park.  This work is carried out as part of the Zimbabwe National Leopard Conservation Programme in conjunction with local partners The Zambezi Society. This project aims to ensure that leopard trophy hunting practices are sustainable and not detrimental to the future viability of the species.  

Conservation Successes
Data collected between 1999 and 2004 showed conclusively that lion hunting levels in the areas surrounding the Park were unsustainable and were causing serious perturbations to the lion population within the Park.  Following the advice of Dr Loveridge and his team, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (PMWA) imposed a four-year lion-hunting moratorium in 2005, giving the population the time to recover.  The project has monitored this recovery and works closely with the PWMA to safeguard the future viability of the Hwange lion population. 

The Project's research and recommendations are now routinely used to underpin and revise management programmes for lions and leopards, ensuring that they are based on a sound understanding of behavioural ecology and social biology within Hwange's ecosystem.

Mitigating human-wildlife conflict
A recent initiative, introduced in 2007, investigates and addresses human-wildlife conflict along the boundary of the Park.  As is often the case in Africa, people live in close proximity with wildlife and can suffer crop and livestock losses as a result.  Unless these conflicts are addressed and losses mitigated, retaliatory killing has the potential to undermine conservation efforts within protected areas. The Project aims to gain insight into problem animal (particularly lion) behaviour in conflict areas and to better understand the needs of the local people, in order to work with them to develop practical solutions and remove the need to kill wildlife illegally.

Conservation Landscapes
One of the major challenges in conservation of wide-ranging carnivore species is the need to protect extensive areas of habitat to maintain populations of sufficient size and genetic integrity.  There is an urgent need to safeguard habitat and wildlife corridors before encroachment of human populations makes such measures impossible. The need to ascertain where corridors exist and to ensure that these remain open is crucial to the future of large carnivores in the region. Vital links still exist between southern and more northerly sub-populations of lions. If these are lost, gene flow is likely to be severely limited and damaging genetic isolation may occur. This component of the overall project draws together both intensive behavioural understanding of lions and leopards from the core HNP project, the genetic structure of regional populations, knowledge of potential and actual movement corridors and the sociological and economic aspects of wildlife corridors to assess, recommend and negotiate implementation of viable wildlife conservation landscapes.

Working with communities and conservation education
Science is the foundation of practical conservation and is at the heart of the Project's work. However, the team believes that for conservation to be effective local people must be engaged in the decision-making process.  Local communities on the borders of National Parks are often excluded from conservation policy and management solutions.  The Project seeks to address this problem by working in collaboration with local stakeholders such as village headmen, chiefs, rural district councils and the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe.
The Project has been involved in conservation education since 2002.  The Project's unique local theatre group, the Ingonyama Players, have been a success both in conveying the conservation message and in transforming the lives of the actors.  The group is now independent and are employed pro-rata for conservation education projects. The Project now aims to expand conservation education efforts, using art as a means of educating children on environmental issues and by making educational materials available to the wider community. 

Thanks
The Hwange Project would not be possible without the generous support of Thomas Kaplan and the Panthera.  Riv and Joan Winant and the Eppley Foundation have given their unstinting support to the project over several years.  The Mitsubishi Foundation for Europe and Africa has supported our conservation education efforts.  A Darwin Initiative for Biodiversity grant funded the project from 2001-2005. We are extremely grateful for donations from the Regina Frankenburg Foundation, British Consulate in Zimbabwe, SAVE Foundation, Gogo Biedron, John and Kirsten Swift, Fiona Mackenzie, Steve Smith, Rowan Austin and Philip St Pier.  Valuable logistical support has been provided by Brian Courtenay and SATIB insurance, Instalite Contracting, the Hide Safaris and Wilderness Safaris.  We thank the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority of Zimbabwe for the privilege of working in Hwange and for assistance with fieldwork.