Within the framework of the EU funded Strengthening community Law Enforcement and  livelihoods project  in the KAZA TFCA, 18 Community scouts from Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe participated in the unprecedented  experiential learning (exchange visit) for community scouts in the  KAZA TFCA in May 2019. 

The principal objective of the exchange visit was to share experiences and lessons on anti-poaching, human wildlife conflict and data collecting approaches within the and across the KAZA member countries. The visit also aimed at o exploring effective collaboration of the regarding cross border trafficking of wildlife parts.

During the visit, the scouts and guards from the 3 countries conducted foot patrols in different teams in order to collect data using SMART templates developed in Zambia. Another group collected data using the patrol form from Zimbabwe and others collected data using the Namibian event books. As part of the key aspects of Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) and the challenges that communities face with Problem Animal Control, the teams shared experiences in HWC mitigation including awareness, reporting and dealing with the problem animals.

The community game guards, community scouts and environmental resource monitors are responsible for conducting patrols in their respective countries. During the patrols, the teams record various incidences found while on duty, including poaching incidents, human wildlife conflicts, environmental condition, fire occurrence and other legal activities. This training therefore helped to strengthen the work that the team was already conducting.
One of the key components of the project is to enable look and learn tours across the three countries and improve experiences and implementation of community anti-poaching initiative in the KAZA landscape which was provided by the exchange visit.

The community anti-poaching units were encouraged not to limit monitoring to wildlife and poaching but also consider other environmental aspects that affect the communities in totality, such as stream bank cultivation.  

Overall, it was great learning for the scouts, but also for me. As Senior Wildlife Officer, focusing on Sioma Ngwezi National Park, learning from other countries is very beneficial.