Mirriam Namushi comes from a dirt-poor family in rural Zambia kept alive by women. She knows the meaning of relying on natural resources for survival.
How, at the age of 38 and with four young children of her own, did she come to be a prosecutor of environmental crimes and the abuse of natural resources? Namushi was one of 42 students who graduated recently after spending a year honing their skills at the Southern African Wildlife College in Limpopo.
”As a woman, I am fighting to keep the wild animals for future generations. People say environmental crimes are not like stealing or murdering, but I am trying to show them the environment matters,” she told the Mail & Guardian.
Namushi prosecutes between 12 and 15 cases a month in western Zambia. Offenders found with ”proscribed trophies” such as ivory or a lion skin can receive jail sentences of five years or more.
A big part of her job is getting community buy-in for conservation. Some weeks she joins her investigators on anti-poaching operations in the bush, where they rely on intelligence from rural communities.
Like the eight other women who graduated with her, Namushi believes getting more women involved in environmental matters is imperative for the future of the planet.
”Women will make things work well and there will be less corruption,” she said. ”As mothers, they have a feeling for nature and they want their children to see lions for real, not just in the movies.”
The Zambia Wildlife Authority nominated Namushi for training at the college, which borders the northern Kruger National Park. She won a bursary from the Southern African Conservation Education Trust to do a diploma this year.
Most of the graduates, like Namushi, were separated from their children for a year to study. Few of their families, based in seven Southern and East African countries, could afford to attend the ceremony last Thursday.
Iracema Maiopue, from Maputo, was fortunate to have not only her three-year-old daughter and her husband present, but also her bosses from Mozambique’s ministry of tourism. Maiopue (27) has a degree in forestry engineering from the University of Mondlane, and after getting her college diploma plans to join the ministry’s directorate of conservation.
”Animals have to be respected; we have to provide the right environment for them to grow and develop,” she said. ”Women are good in this role because they are sensitive.”
Her mentor is the deputy director of conservation areas, Isabel Macie, one of a growing number of women leading the reconstruction of environment and tourism in post-civil war Mozambique.
Delivering the keynote address at the ceremony, Macie said the world faced mass species extinction because of human beings. ”As the population grows, the situation will get more serious. We’ve seen human populations grow from 2,5-billion to 5,7-billion in just 20 years.
”We can have a disastrous impact on the planet — but we also have the ability to save other species. This is our challenge.”
Since opening its doors in 1997, the wildlife college has trained more than 2 000 students from 20 African countries, mostly in the Southern African Development Community, in everything from computer skills and communication strategies to overhauling a 4X4 and dissecting an impala.
Maisa Chulu, a 26-year-old ranger from the Lake Malawi National Park, became interested in conservation when she joined an environmental club at school. Her family and friends expected her to become a nursery school teacher or secretary.
”I had this concept that if we destroy the animals and trees, we destroy the key to life. We had better use them wisely so others can use them too.”
Chulu joined Malawi National Parks after school and was in charge of environmental education and community involvement at Lake Malawi before starting her diploma at the college. Her husband is the park’s assistant manager, and their son will be two when she gets home.
With her new skills, she will be promoted to assistant parks and wildlife officer for national parks. One of few, and sometimes the only woman during her training, she is determined to make a difference in her drought-ravaged country.
”Conservation is becoming more important [in Malawi] because there are more people, and they rely more and more on our natural resources,” she said.
The promise of peace parks
”Elephants need big home ranges,” says Stephen Malungo. ”The moment you put up fences, you restrict their natural movements and this affects the entire ecosystem. Transfrontier conservation offers a way of cooperating by extending areas for animals — with benefits for people.”
For Malungo, an operations ranger in Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park, cross-border conservation areas — or ”peace parks” — hold promise for Africa’s reserves. The Lower Zambezi is part of an initiative involving Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Malungo (38) acquired his diploma in natural resource management at the Southern African Wildlife College with flying colours last week. He received two awards as best student, after spending the year as student representative council president.
Managed by the Peace Parks Foundation, one of the college’s main focus areas is the training of staff working in transfrontier conservation. The foundation is helping set up at least 14 peace parks in the Southern African Development Community region, and wants many to be sustainable by 2010.
The peace parks are massive undertakings, involving buy-in from governments and communities and cooperation among bureaucracies. Five countries are involved in setting up the Kavango-Zambezi peace park.
Malungo said the diverse views of his fellow students were a key element of his course at the wildlife college. ”These are the networks that will drive and shape the future of conservation in Africa,” he said. — Fiona Macleod