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ISSUE: q406
01/11/2006
Lukushashi River floods
During our 2005 and 2006 farming season we were expecting a bumper harvest from our fields. Unfortunately Lukushashi River got flooded and our crops and some houses were washed away. We submitted pictures and a report to the Disaster Management Unit of the Office of the Vice-President and a fax of the report sent to the DC. The DC was ordered to deliver relief food to the area affected by the floods but to our surprise nothing has been delivered since the submitting of the reports to the DMU.
Another major problem is wild animals that damage our vegetables during the cool dry season. Secondly people here are really in a big crisis of income and food. Some are depending on honey and making clay pots for their living. Our appeal to the government is we need help before we start burying our children.
We are trying by all means to help ourselves and I am attending a course on conservation agriculture whereby new methods can help us out of our hunger. We are also bringing in the Chongololo Club. We hope for more investment in our area because hunting brings us little money and few jobs.
Boniface Phiri, VAG Chairman and Chairman of Natural Resources, Luembe Community Resource Board.
The Nyalugwe Chiefdom, Eastern Province
The main activities of the Nyalugwe community are farming, fishing and hunting, supplemented by basket and broom making, and wild honey collection.
There are two types of farming (mambwela), both for subsistence only. Winter farming is mainly done when the River Luangwa and small streams flood, leaving humus or some fertility to the land basins.
During the month of May, people start to make some pot holes ready to plant when the ground is still wet. The farming is completely different from the rainy season farming which involves a lot of labour. This has less labour as weeding is only done once. At this time we grow crops like maize, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers, cowpeas, okra, lima beans, kidney beans, green beans and tomatoes.
The rainy season farming involves a lot of labour and we plant many varieties of crops. There are many threats during this time from wildlife, mainly elephant, wild pig and hippo.
Fishing is done by a few people, the residents buying permits from the district council. Some fresh and dried fish are sold.
Our Nyalugwe Community Resource Board has banned all hunting by members of the community and we are busy sensitising people on the importance of conserving natural resources as they do bring in some employment and assistance to social services, but mainly assistance with land use planning and developing projects which investors might come to partner us in.
In future we need volunteers to come and promote the conservation of wildlife so as to enhance and sustain the economic benefits of tourism through the empowerment of villagers. This empowerment must come from government and the decentralisation policy, but mainly from ourselves.
I will soon be doing a course in conservation agriculture at Kasisi mission so that new knowledge can be passed back to my people. We are also signing up seven of our schools with the Chongololo programme which we know will only makes things better for us.
Peter Nyalugwe, Secretary, Nyalugwe Community Resource Board.
The Importance of Learning the Law
From my findings and observations, I have seen a lot of ignorance of law in our community. I am doing a diploma in law at NIPA, being sponsored by one of the safari companies, which has made me understand the importance of the law.
For the wildlife to be conserved, it is important to take serious measures to educate and sensitise the community in the importance of the law and this can only be achieved if the ZAWA police officers and the community resource boards learn the law.
The problem comes in when the ZAWA officers and the CRB don’t know what to do under the Wildlife Act, especially in section 5 (1) e where it states that the public are supposed to be sensitised to the importance of wildlife conservation. The reason why the community is failing to conserve the wildlife is because the community do not understand the importance of wildlife conservation.
Due to pressure from ZAWA and the chief, the community thinks that the animals belong to the chief and to ZAWA. The community can only conserve the wildlife if they are told about their rights. They must know that under the Lands Act they are given the right to own their piece of land. This simply means that if they understand their rights they can definitely conserve wildlife.
Tourism being one of our county’s major income possibilities, there is a need for government under the ZAWA to form clubs such as the Chongalolo clubs. I think this will help the youth to understand and appreciate the importance of wildlife conservation. Also our government must make sure that they see to it that anyone found destroying the wildlife, regardless of status, is to be punished.
Japher Mbewe, Luembe Chiefdom, Eastern Province.
Date: q406
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