CHEETAH RETURN AFTER A CENTURY

TO BANGWEULU WETLANDS IN ZAMBIA

Latest news from African Parks in early 2021, is the arrival of cheetah to Bangweulu Wetlands in Zambia. They are the first to set foot here in almost a century. This is important news, because there are fewer than 7,000 cheetahs remaining, in a fraction of their historic range. That’s how endangered they are! And the gene pool is critically low.

If you are lucky enough to see a cheetah in the wild, it’s a rare and precious experience. Reintroductions like this are essential to the survival of the species.

Cheetah have become so habituated in the Masai Mara
they have been known to jump on safari vehicles.

I’m a great fan of African Parks, an NGO focused on conservation. They have been steadily taking over the running of some of Africa’s most diminished National Parks and game reserves.

Communities live in this park

ThIS extraordinarily diverse park, whose name means ‘where water meets the sky’, is legally home to 50,000 people. They retain the right to sustainably harvest its natural resources. This includes endemic black lechwe (only found here), which forms a critical source of protein. These antelopes have increased from 35,000 to over 50,000 with better management and containment of poaching.

Model for Success

African Parks have a model for success, after years of unsustainable human pressure depleting Bangweulu’s wildlife and fish stocks. They have formed partnerships with Community Resources Boards (who own the land), and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife. They entered into a long-term agreement to sustainably manage and protect the natural assets long into the future.

This proven model is working in 19 parks all over Africa, with new acquisitions all the time. See them here.