DanChurchAid Zimbabwe is working to improve the livelihoods of at risk communities living along the Zambezi Valley Basin, where human wild-life conflict has resulted in loss of life due to habitat encroachment, climate change and biodiversity losses. Failing livelihoods and high poverty levels have contributed to massive loss of forests, and declining megafauna (the big five) due to poaching and other negative and harmful illicit and extractive practices. Habitat loss has intensified human-wildlife conflicts resulting in over 60 deaths, and over 4000 cattle losses in Matabeleland North in 2021.
Unprecedented biodiversity losses in the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve and world heritage sites in the Zambezi Basin, and severe climate change impacts have placed humans and wildlife in conflict over resources, chief among them being water, and habitat. Uncoordinated institutional, governance and policy frameworks at inter and intra-state levels, and decades of protracted economic decline, have worsened the situation.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, DanChurchAid Zimbabwe is bringing together all stakeholders involved in policy making, conservation; economic and social spheres, together with the community, through the uTariri (Stewardship) Biodiversity Project to identify mid-to-long term interventions towards sustainable solutions, where communities participate in the economic dividends from biodiversity, and improving their livelihoods, while exercising stewardship in their communities. Phase One provided an initial baseline for the project in Hurungwe.
About the project
Period: September – December 2021
Budget: 200,000 USD
Donor: Danida
