NATIONAL PARK AND GAME MANAGEMENT AREAS By Mbewe Wilson

Zambia boasts with 20 National Parks with Kafue National Park (KNP) being the largest and Mosi-O-Tunya being the smallest. The country also boasts of 36 Game Management Areas (GMAs) and it is these GMAs that act as a buffer zone for hunting. The country is enriched and endowed with natural resources and these natural resources provide a livelihood for the community and for the revenue of the nation.

NATIONAL PARKS

National park is a land protected by government meaning it’s a large area of public land chosen by the government for its scenic, recreational, scientific, or historical importance and usually given special protection by the people involved such as Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA).

All natural resources found in the park should be maintained and left the way they are to maintain the cycle of the ecosystem. It is in these parks where animals need to live, dwell freely and multiply for the purposes of continuity of life species. No human habitation in the park is allowed so that animals are not inconvenienced in any form when they want to reproduce or do any other activity. Human beings pose threat to animals and infringe fear to the life of animals where reproduction and safety is concerned.

ACTIVITIES   

Several activities are involved in the management and conservation of a park for its sustainability and survival. It is therefore important to conserve wildlife resources in the national park for the following purposes:

National parks are considered as free breeding zones for animals. National parks provide a comfortable environment in which animals can live and reproduce freely. Animals will never reproduce where there is no enough space and freedom for them to interact and finally mate to reproduce.

Game viewing is another event that takes place in a park. We must note that, no hunting is allowed in a national park and these places are mainly for non-consumptive utilization. Non-consumptive utilization is where there is no harvest or removal of wildlife products. When tourists visit these parks are taken round on safari walks to view the game or animals in the park and appreciate the beauty of these animals in the park. Most of the tourists as they go on safari walks they are exposed to Photographic utilization where they take photos of animals and any other interesting feature in the park as they go on their safari walk such as pictures of a midden of different animals. A midden is a pile of dung material of an animal such as an impala. These middens act as a source of information or send a message to other animals either of the same or different species.

Non-consumptive utilization is very helpful to the conservation of these animals as some tourists are just interested in sound recording of animals. When animals of different species produces sound, these tourists will record the sound and they will truly appreciate nature.

Scientific research is also conducted in a national park where animals are vast and plenty. When an individual or a group wants to study the behaviour of a certain mammal there are taken to a park to carry out a research in that park.

It must also be noted that all these activities to take place in a park there is a fee attached to each activity either it be game viewing, sound recording or any other activity mentioned above. The government realizes revenue from these activities and hence help in the running of the affairs of the nation.  

GAME MANAGEMENT AREAS – GMAs

Game management area is a protected area and is owned by the government but managed by both the government and the community and the community is more involved in the management. The community is involved in the conservation and management of these GMAs because the community lives with these resources and earn a living out of these wildlife resources.

ACTIVITIES

A Game Management Area (GMA) is an area that act as a buffer zone of hunting. All kinds of hunting takes place in a GMA since no hunting is allowed in a national park. Animals like for the situation of our country are hunted in a GMA. Though considered to be a protected areas where humans and animals co-exist (human habitation allowed). Lodges are also found in these GMAs for the purposes of accommodation for the tourists and hunters who come to view animals and hunt in these areas.

The people that live in these GMAs are expected to do the activity of hunting in these areas to sustain their lives. Farming is allowed in these areas and the community is also sensitized on how to prevent human wildlife conflicts such as baboon eating people’s maize or guinea fowls eating people’s groundnuts.

Hunting and fishing also happens in GMA knowing that consumptive utilization happens in a GMA. Consumptive utilization is the kind of wildlife utility where you harvest/remove the wildlife products such as horns, teeth, bones, tail, skin and flesh/meat.

There is need to manage these resources through guarding our national parks and GMAs so well to foster the government’s revenue and for the purposes of the future generation.

Share with us your experiences, comments and recommendations. Send emails to wildlifemgtsociety@gmail.com