Conservation Education

Zambia Update:

On 8 August 2024, our partners at the Game Rangers International (GRI) Wildlife Discovery Centre in Lusaka National Park, celebrated their second anniversary, marking two years of unwavering commitment to conservation education and the preservation of Zambia’s diverse wildlife and natural landscapes. This milestone is a testament to the collaborative vision realised through the generous support of DSWF. From its inception, the Wildlife Discovery Centre has rapidly emerged as a beacon of conservation awareness, providing free education to over 2,000 children annually. The Centre also serves as the new home for the renowned Elephant Nursery, previously located in Lilayi. This transformative project, born from the partnership between GRI and DSWF, highlights the importance of education and community engagement in sustaining conservation efforts.

The Wildlife Discovery Centre is founded on three core pillars: to educate, recruit, and engage. The first pillar, 'Educate,' is an ambitious endeavour to engage and educate 250,000 school children in conservation efforts by 2050, thereby embedding a deep respect for nature in future generations. The second pillar, 'Recruit,' focuses on supporting and creating approximately 70 positions that are accessible to local communities, thus providing employment opportunities while fostering a profound connection to conservation. The third pillar, 'Engage,' seeks to enhance tourism to Lusaka National Park and the surrounding areas, thereby bolstering the local economy and promoting environmental stewardship.

India Update

In Assam, India, our partners have been leveraging advanced space-science tools, such as GIS and remote sensing, to monitor forests, wildlife, and flood-prone areas, particularly during the monsoon season in rhino-bearing regions. These tools are vital for effective decision-making in conservation, helping to protect both wildlife and human communities from the impacts of environmental changes.

Our partners recently organised a two-day Conservation and Education Consultation in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong, Assam. This event aimed to develop a strategic approach to conservation education, engaging a broad spectrum of participants—from children to the elderly—in discussions on sustainable resource management, biodiversity conservation, and the preservation of traditional knowledge and cultural values. The consultation was a platform for sharing insights on model-village development, heritage education, and the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer in sustaining conservation efforts.

Our partner’s commitment to integrating traditional practices with modern conservation strategies is exemplified by their initiatives in promoting alternative and sustainable livelihoods. These efforts, supported by DSWF, aim to ensure that local communities can thrive economically while contributing to the preservation of biodiversity.

Furthering these educational efforts, our partners also held a 20-day summer nature camp in collaboration with DSWF and the Orang National Park & Tiger Reserve Authority. The camp, attended by 50 students, combined academic instruction with environmental awareness training, aiming to instil a deep understanding of conservation among the next generation. Experts in wildlife and conservation led sessions that highlighted the importance of protecting natural resources and wildlife.

Guinea Update

DSWF and our project partners are deeply committed to environmental education. This school year, over 800 children participated in the Environmental Education Programme. The year ended with a highly anticipated excursion to the forest in April, where each child received a reusable water bottle, reinforcing the importance of reducing plastic waste. Beyond the classroom, the team is actively working in local villages to establish nature clubs, which are more engaging and accessible versions of the DSWF-supported education programme. These clubs are particularly important in reaching children who do not attend school, especially in the rural areas surrounding the national park, where 40% of children are not enrolled in formal education.

Through these initiatives, our partners aim to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the natural world among the next generation, ensuring that conservation efforts are rooted in the communities that live closest to these precious ecosystems.

Zimbabwe Update:

Education remains a cornerstone of our conservation efforts, and our partner’s Children’s Bush Camp continues to provide exemplary conservation education to young people. So far, this year they have welcomed seven local schools, including a primary school dedicated to serving children with special educational needs. In 2024, the wonderful Mr. Nsimango will have led these bush camps for 20 years, having started in 2004. Both DSWF and our partners are immensely grateful for Mr. Nsimango’s exceptional dedication to conservation education. Since 2004, he has educated over 13,000 children about conservation and the importance of coexisting with nature, transforming the Children’s Bush Camp into a flagship programme.

UK

We have had a very busy year so far with delivery to over 4,000 children in the months leading up to April. This has been to primary schools all over the country, either online or face to face. It includes making over 200 tiger puppets, 50 clay rhinos and 150 3D habitats. All sessions have a clear conservation message embedded within them and we have updated our evaluation procedures to explore how much the children remember from each session. We will include a summary of this feedback in the next report. During the Easter holiday we continued with 10 library visits with fun craft-based workshops for children aged 6-11. We delivered within East and West Sussex, as well as to new library partners in Surrey and Hampshire.

A new project is in development – moving into 16-19 provision in colleges, with a new partnership through Reigate College to get young people to produce learning materials, raise money, or be supported to deliver sessions to primary schools. The pilot scheme has been a success, and we will continue this with City of Portsmouth, Peter Symonds, and Queen Mary College in the summer term. We mark this as a very successful start to the year.

Guinea

Our partners in Guinea have continued to grow their successful education programme, which launched a few years ago. The programme, aimed at raising awareness and increasing knowledge of conservation and environmental themes, as well as helping the children develop crucial literacy skills, has established a new office in Sanguiana, the regional capital of the northern part of High Niger National Park. The programme is growing rapidly and now reaches over 900 children a year. This new office is helping to reduce travel costs as well as facilitating the coordination of programmes and missions, enhancing logistics and communication. This will prove especially useful during the rainy season when the communities become isolated and hard to reach by road.

This year has seen an increase in requests from schools in neighbouring villages to expand the environmental education programme. This outpouring of enthusiasm for our programmes is a positive step in providing children with the knowledge they need to conserve natural resources.

We are incredibly thrilled to be a pivotal part in raising a generation more aware and knowledgeable about the issues surrounding the exploitation of natural resources, as this is one of the most important long-term strategies for conserving the biodiversity of Guinea. To respond to these new demands, by the start of the new school year, our partners aim to have two educators and two volunteers in the north along with four educators and one volunteer in Faranah. These team members will engage in education and community development activities, overseen by the new manager of Conservation Programmes, and we are keen to see them succeed.

Zimbabwe

The Children’s Bush Camp programme run by our partners in Zimbabwe, remains one of the most effective ways to develop positive relationships with the local communities. So far this year, our partners have seen the tremendous impact on the overall education of the children who attend, and demand is growing for our partners work to expand to cover more school areas.

Iganayana Childrens Bush Camp provides a four-day residential education programme for the targeted schools in our partner’s core operating area, which has been attended by over 800 students to date. This is an unparalleled educational opportunity for local children that will have a significantly positive impact on conservation endeavours in the area by providing direct benefit from conservation activities to local people.

As always, thank you for your generous support in our education initiatives across the UK and Africa.

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