Zambia’s protected areas are home to abundant wildlife which bring in millions of tourism dollars annually. Yet each year, agriculture encroaches on wildlife habitats, intensifying human-wildlife conflict that results in crop destruction, livestock attacks, and deadly human-animal encounters. Within the wildlife & natural resource sectors in Zambia, men make up the vast majority of wildlife scouts who patrol the country’s national parks & hold most positions on Community Resource Boards (CRBs), responsible for local natural resource management.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) program works to mitigate threats to wildlife by securing community land rights, strengthening community governance structures and land use planning in wildlife areas, increasing women’s participation in wildlife governance and law enforcement, and advancing the wildlife economy. ILRG piloted a gender responsive CRB election process & provided capacity building support to women members. ILRG is working with NGO extension agents to integrate women’s leadership modules into trainings, creating a new cohort of wildlife sector professionals who understand the importance of women’s empowerment in achieving natural resource objectives. The program also worked with the Department of National Parks & Wildlife to recruit & train a cadre of women scouts to patrol Lower Zambezi National Park, which included gender-based violence mitigation efforts.
Related Resources
- The Voice of Leadership: Women in Wildlife in Zambia
- Young Women Stand Their Ground in Zambia’s Wildlife Sector
- Increasing Women’s Participation in Community Natural Resource Governance in Zambia
- Increasing Women’s Participation in Community Resource Boards in Zambia: Outcomes and Lessons Learned from the Election process
- Brief: Gender Assessment of the Wildlife Sector in Zambia
- Brief: Gender-Based Violence in the Natural Resource Sector in Zambia
- Breaking Down Employment Barriers in Zambia: Increasing Opportunities for Female Community Scouts
- Wildlife Resource Governance in Zambia: Where are the Women?
- Learning to Share the Land in Zambia
- Documenting Individual Land Rights to Save Zambia’s Forests
- From the Ground Up: Participatory Rights Documentation for Healthy Landscapes
- Strengthening community-based natural resource management in Zambia
- Growing a Wildlife Industry in Zambia