Project African Wilderness (PAW) is a not for profit organisation with the express purpose of protecting and restoring the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve in Malawi.
Project African Wilderness (PAW) is a not for profit organisation with the express purpose of protecting and restoring the Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve in Malawi.
In 2004, PAW was co-founded by English regeneration consultant Gaynor Asquith [1] and a South African safari company owner. PAW now has a team of 48 in Malawi and as many volunteers in Europe working to protect a remote and beautiful part of Africa.
At the time of PAW's founding, illegal poaching made the Mwabvi wildlife reserve was almost devoid of animals. [1]
PAW is not only a conservation project. Money that is raised is put into the development of projects (and infrastructure) that will benefit the local people of Mwabvi and allow them to take control of their own livelihoods through businesses and education relating to eco-tourism.
In February 2007, Project African Wilderness signed a long-term legal agreement with the Malawi Government's Department of National Parks and Wildlife to take over the conservation and development of Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve, which is one of the nine National Parks in Malawi and was first protected in 1928. The environmental conservation team is led by Barry Kerr, an experienced South African conservation and environmentalist. His partner Adele Kerr carries out marketing and oversees the growing and vital community development programme.
In 2010, as a result of the work done by project African Wilderness and their Malawian sister company the Mwabvi Wildlife and Community Trust (MWCT) Mwabvi opened Njate Lodge for tourists.
The reserve is now less than half its original size, wood and game poaching continue and PAW are first working to stop deliberate fires which destroy seedlings and saplings. If the habitat goes the animals will not come back. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife has up to 12 game scouts at Mwabvi but they have neither resources nor support to prevent poaching and protect the wilderness.
PAW has one of several 'concessions' given to various organisations by the Government to try out different ways of exploiting the natural resources for tourism. Mwabvi will never be a major tourist destination but the area lends itself to use for conservation training, and over time game scout training will take place. The former National Game Scout Training Centre at Liwonde National Park closed some time ago and the country needs more trained game scouts.
When working in this part of Malawi it is necessary to take into account that there are 60,000 people living around the edge of the Reserve - this is a highly populated area. The local primary school has 2 teachers, 2 classrooms and 250 pupils. The nearest town, Bangula, has a primary school with 6 classrooms, 8 staff and 3,000 pupils. Life expectancy is 32. The Malawi average life expectancy is 38 years. AIDS and malaria often kills game scouts just five years after they are trained, and hardly any of the local children know the reserve exists.
Any person or organisation working in this part of sub Saharan Africa should expect to be there for the long term and save the natural environment for future generations. It is essential to work with the local people, be involved with appropriate education programmes, and not rely on short term grants and aid.[ citation needed ]
The list of projects needed to create a sustainable programme for the long term that PAW and others are working on covers:
Project African Wilderness has charitable status in the United Kingdom and operates through the Mwabvi Wildlife and Community Trust in Malawi with volunteers and paid professional employees in both countries. Employing over 50 local people, PAW and MWCT have significantly extended the road system within the reserve and have built a lodge and a campsite, thus opening up the park for tourism. They have also extended the facilities at Chipembere Camp, providing volunteer accommodation and facilities for their various outreach projects. They also run a growing predator breeding programme, and have enclosures for a number of lions and other cats.
Maasai Mara, also known as Masai Mara, and locally simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok and Trans Mara Counties, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees which dot the landscape.
Liwonde National Park, also known as Liwonde Wildlife Reserve, is a national park in southern Malawi, near the Mozambique border. The park was established in 1973, and has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since August 2015. African Parks built an electric fence around the perimeter of the park to help mitigate human-wildlife conflict. In early 2018, the adjacent Mangochi Forest Reserve was also brought under African Parks' management, almost doubling the size of the protected area.
Iona National Park is the largest national park in Angola. It is situated in the Southwestern corner of the country, in Namibe Province. It is roughly bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the West, an escarpment to the East that marks the beginning of the interior plateau, the Curoca River to the North, and the Cunene River to the South. It is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of the city of Namibe and covers 5,850 square miles (15,200 km2) sq. miles.
Wildlife tourism is an element of many nations' travel industry centered around observation and interaction with local animal and plant life in their natural habitats. While it can include eco- and animal-friendly tourism, safari hunting and similar high-intervention activities also fall under the umbrella of wildlife tourism. Wildlife tourism, in its simplest sense, is interacting with wild animals in their natural habitat, either by actively or passively. Wildlife tourism is an important part of the tourism industries in many countries including many African and South American countries, Australia, India, Canada, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Maldives among many. It has experienced a dramatic and rapid growth in recent years worldwide and many elements are closely aligned to eco-tourism and sustainable tourism.
Rhino Ark is a charitable trust registered as a Charity in Kenya, UK and United States. Founded in 1988 the trust responded to the grave crisis facing Kenya’s Black Rhino population in the Aberdare ecosystem. The Rhino were under severe threat from rampant poaching for their highly valued horn. Rhino Ark’s initial aim was to build a fence along sections of the Aberdare National Park on its Eastern Salient where rhino were being mercilessly poached. The Salient borders directly onto farming land. Wildlife was able to maraud at night into the farms bordering the park, destroying crops, creating fear and loss of both revenue and on occasions, lives. This situation fuelled an already volatile community which saw no value in protecting either the wildlife or the forest habitat. Poachers had easy access.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is a Kenyan state corporation that was established in 1989 to conserve and manage Kenya’s wildlife. It is established under an Act of Parliament Cap 376 with the mandate to conserve and manage wildlife in Kenya, and to enforce related laws and regulations. It manages the biodiversity of the country, protecting and conserving the flora and fauna.
Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address habitat conservation and protection of natural resources in their constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilization of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future.".
With an area of 135km² Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve is Malawi’s smallest national park, and its least accessible. Nevertheless, it has a wide variety of habitats, including Mopane, Combretum and brachystegia woodland, as well as open savanna, dambo, and riverine areas. Mwabvi was the last natural home to Malawi's Black Rhino population, but both wildlife and woodland have been poached over recent years. However many species of antelope, including kudu, sable, impala and nyala, are present, and even leopard and hyena have been seen. Buffalo still bathe in the Mwabvi river, and, although the number of human tourists is low, lions from neighbouring Mozambique are regular visitors. The scenery is spectacular, with views over the Shire River and the Zambesi river, and the magnificent sandstone outcrops give an almost lunar feel to the landscape.
South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 19 parks consisting of 3,751,113 hectares (37,511.13 km2), over 3% of the total area of South Africa.
Majete Wildlife Reserve is a nature reserve in southwestern Malawi, established as a protected area in 1955. The reserve's animal populations were decimated during the late 1970s and 1980s due to poaching and other human activities. Majete has been managed by African Parks since 2003, when the nonprofit conservation organization entered into a public–private partnership with the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). Since then, wildlife has been restored, the park has achieved big five game status, and tourism has increased.
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, is the largest and oldest wildlife reserve in Malawi, near Nkhotakota. The park's hilly terrain features dambos and miombo woodlands as the dominant vegetation, which support a variety of mammal and bird species. Poaching has greatly reduced the number of elephants and other large mammals in Nkhotakota, but conservation efforts to restore the elephant population started when African Parks began managing the reserve in 2015.
African Parks is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on conservation, established in 2000 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was founded as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, a private company, then underwent structural changes to become an NGO called African Parks Foundation, and later renamed African Parks Network. The organization manages national parks and protected areas throughout Africa, in collaboration with governments and surrounding communities. African Parks manages 15 protected areas in 9 countries, as of April 2018, and employs more than 1,000 rangers. Michael Eustace, Peter Fearnhead, Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Anthony Hall-Martin, and Mavuso Msimang are credited as co-founders; Fearnhead continues to serve as chief executive officer. Prince Harry was appointed African Parks' president in late 2017.
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The protected areas of Namibia include its national parks and reserves. With the 2010 declaration of Dorob National Park, Namibia became the first and only country to have its entire coastline protected through a national parks network. Protected areas are subdivided into game reserves and/or nature reserves, such as special protected area, wilderness areas, natural areas, and development areas. There are also recreation reserves. Facilities in the national parks are operated by Namibia Wildlife Resorts. Over 19% of Namibia is protected, an area of some 130,000 square kilometres. However, the Ministry of Environment & Tourism auctions limited hunting rights within its protected areas. The Namibia Nature Foundation, an NGO, was established in 1987 to raise and administer funds for the conservation of wildlife and protected area management. Communal Wildlife Conservancies in Namibia help promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.
Pod Volunteer is a non-governmental volunteering organisation with an associated registered charity based in the United Kingdom.
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