African College for Community Based Natural Resource Management

In Zambia, average income is less than $1 a day and 86% are below the poverty line. AIDS infection rate is among the highest in Africa, health care is ranked among the lowest in the world, and education is not far behind. If you were without food or medicine and were desperate to support your family, would you care about something called "conservation"? Would you care about wildlife ten years from now? Most likely you would find the easiest and quickest source of food or income possible. In rural Zambia with its vast, relatively

unspoiled wildlands, this source is often wildlife. Coping with poverty and hunger translates into many forms of environmental degradation, including the decimation of wildlife. Personal needs dictate priorities. In order for rural Zambia to accept the concept of conservation, basic human needs MUST be achieved first, namely poverty and hunger.

For many years, authorities believed law enforcement was the best way to achieve conservation. Results have revealed a very different story and argue against over-reliance on law enforcement. New approaches based on better understanding and involvement of communities are needed.

Zambia has responded to this challenge by seeking

leadership and solutions from rural communities through a process known as community-based natural resource management, or CBNRM. The process attempts to strengthen the link between resource management and improved rural livelihoods and thereby provides an incentive for communities to conserve resources to sustain their development needs. It is also a process that requires democratically elected local institutions to facilitate solutions to self-expressed problems identified by community residents themselves and to regulate human activities to ensure these solutions are achievable.

CBNRM is without precedent in post-colonial Zambia, as Government has always played the central authority for managing resources. Zambia's experience in developing its CBNRM program is limited to about 12 years. During this short history, mistakes were made and results did not always reach expectations. By remaining adaptive and experimental, however, Zambia was able to apply important lessons. Slowly but surely, these efforts paid off. The experience has galvanized Government's commitment to CBNRM, not just because it makes conservation more feasible and affordable, but because it offers communities a chance to benefit legally from well managed uses of natural resources. Even more importantly, it encourages communities to develop the leadership and governance skills to solve their own livelihood needs without over-reliance on Government.

	Zambia's experience in CBNRM is an important story worth sharing with the world. An important part of this story is the African College for CBNRM. It is a College unique not just in Zambia but all of Africa. Its students are primarily the rural poor and uneducated who acquire improved skills to manage and benefit from natural resources without destroying them. Elected leaders, often the most educated in the community, learn skills in building accountable and responsible community
institutions. It has become a beacon for rural education across a vast African landscape, helping promote community partnerships with Government and private sector to restore commercial opportunities from these resources that otherwise would be lost to all. The College is institutionally housed within the Zambia Wildlife Authority, the parent authority for all wildlife management in Zambia. ZAWA, as the Zambia Wildlife Authority is called, has a
Directorate for CBNRM, which provides technical and policy support for on-going development of its CBNRM policy and in particular its nation-wide CBNRM program called ADMADE, or Administrative Management Design for Game Management Areas. The College carries out much of the training and	"Before we were given knowledge at our College, we saw no value or reason to conserve our wild animals. Today we protect them. Through legal markets, which the College has helped us develop, wildlife is helping us escape poverty. Wildlife is now too valuable to poach." Charles Musonda, Mwanya GMA
monitoring services for this program.

While the College is primarily responsible to ZAWA, it also integrates other resource sectors into its training curriculum to promote a more holistic approach to ADMADE. For this reason, it often collaborates with other Government departments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to better advise communities on management skills, resource use rights and market opportunities. In recent years its scope of work and methodologies for teaching rural communities have attracted much interest in the region and a more transboundary role for the College is likely to develop in the years ahead. Zambia is proud of its CBNRM achievement and the commitment it has made through its African College for CBNRM. It invites you to tour the College activities through this website and learn more about the various training and research programs it supports.