Sponsor Community Guardians in Zimbabwe

ALERT’s work in Chizarira focuses on the protection of the resources of the surrounding communities. Chizarira is 1 910km² surrounded by rural communities and development living subsistent lifestyles, growing their own crops during the rainy season and keeping livestock. 

Living so close to a National Park poses several challenges for the communities. Large herbivores such as elephant frequently migrate towards these areas where there is an abundant food source in the form of the villagers crops. 

Predators also predate on livestock in these areas and become accustomed to the easy pickings of these unattended livestock. 

There is a gap in Communication between the Guardians of these protected areas and the communities. ALERT has worked on better equipping villagers with equipment to deter the animals and attacks. Several Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation strategies have already been put into place in these communities this year with a vision to further develop each community to a point where there are no more cases of Human Wildlife Conflict recorded. 

ALERT is also monitoring the movement of several elephant and lion in and around Chizarira through GPS Tracking and getting a better understanding of the movement patterns of these animals. ALERT is also now able to inform communities when one of the collared animals approach their area in order for them to be prepared for the arrival of the animal.

By monitoring these animals and better equipping communities with the correct resources, ALERT is working at minimising the gap in communication between the Guardians of these areas and the Surrounding Communities. 

• Global_Giving_Report_7th_Dec_2022.docx (DOCX)