Wildlife Management Planning:  

Basic requirements for community-based wildlife management planning under ADMADE

ADMADE units are large land areas that usually exceed 1200 km2 and to patrol these areas regularly to deter people from misusing wildlife and other resources requires very careful planning to maximize manpower and financial resources.  Most of these responsibilities are shouldered by the Community Resource Boards (CRBs), who are encouraged to employ local residents as Village Scouts to help fulfill their resource management obligations.   

CRBs can only meet these obligations if 1) budgets supporting management needs are carefully planned and followed, 2) employers are aware of management results and provide opportunities for salary increases for paid management staff when work performance warrants an increase, 3) staff receive on-going training to improve their skills and service to the community, and 4) qualified staff exist to supervise the implementation of the management plan on a full-time salary basis. 

The College has monitored the success of wildlife management plans developed by local leaders.  Success levels are generally disappointing and reasons vary from area to area.  One underlying reason is that CRBs lack a full-time person knowledgeable and capable enough to implement these plans on their behalf.  The College recognizes the multi-varied set of skills such a person has to have as well as the great demand on one's time.  To help develop such high caliber people for CRBs, the College now teaches a six-month course to help develop such people for CRBs and they are referred to as Unit Managers. Over time it is hoped these people will continually progress in acquiring professional skills in resource management.  If this happens, rural communities living in Zambia's Game Management Areas will become guided by local professionals who will create increased opportunities for employment and wildlife conservation.

Unit Managers are employed by CRBs and provide supervision of village scouts, help facilitate participation by VAG residents in resource management efforts, collect and use data collected by village scouts to assist CRBs in setting hunting quotas, developing land use plans, and drawing up annual resource management plans.  Such plans require well thought-out budgets derived through close consultation with the CRB and its Resource Management Committee.  These budgets should support quarterly work plans that can be evaluated in terms of budget compliance and performance results.  A typical work plan might look like this:

The concept that management is a necessary investment of labor and funds to increase resource production and ultimately rural incomes is not well enshrined in local culture.  It may, in fact, be regarded as an alien approach and its full acceptance and use of methods will likely take considerable time.  The College helps this process by visiting communities' progress in implementing their management plans and to assist them in evaluating their own success as a basis for local leaders to intensify efforts if needed.  What has proven useful is to develop clear and measurable targets management is expected to achieve and to help link such targets with increased opportunities to derive greater benefits from the resource base.

Key Lesson: Unit Managers are a necessary support person for the CRB to have in order to have full-time qualified person to administer and supervise the implementation of the CRB's resource management plan.  The Unit Manager will require on-going training to be fully developed with the professional skills needed to maximize resource production levels.

Key Lesson: CRBs need to have clear management targets upon which they will be judged by ZAWA and these targets require periodic appraisals.  Meeting such targets should be the basis for ZAWA to reward the CRB with their full share of revenues earned from license sales and other fees charged for legal uses of wildlife on communal lands.