Zimbabwe

Many key African conservation landscapes are transboundary, because wildlife don’t recognize human borders—and neither do threats to wildlife. In transboundary landscapes, we work to strengthen capacity and collaboration between wildlife authorities, communities, and other conservation-minded people on both sides of the border. We facilitate workshops to develop a long-term vision, agree on information-sharing strategies, advise on joint patrols along borders, and help plan movement corridors and dispersal areas for wildlife.

As an advisor to governments and business, we work to put nature at the center of economic decisions. That means factoring the sustainable use of plants and wildlife as assets for growth and prosperity, and investing in ecosystems and biodiversity as a way of building resilience and sustainability. When people value nature and see it as a way of achieving sustainable development, conservation becomes a priority.

At the landscape level, we work closely with local stakeholders to develop and channel investment into viable economic models tied to wildlife and biodiversity. At the national level, we support the underlying analyses, such as the Zimbabwe Biodiversity Economy report, to shape policy frameworks enabling biodiversity economies. And at the continental level, we led the creation of the African Wildlife Economies Community of Practice, ​​a platform for institutions and other stakeholders to collaborate, promote best practices, and collectively advance the biodiversity economy discourse across Africa.

We support parks authorities in improving protected area management. For example, we helped build a rapid-response anti-poaching unit to work along the Zambezi River, trained rangers in ecological monitoring, installed an anti-poaching specialist unit in Mana Pools National Park, and upgraded digital radio capacity to facilitate rapid communications between headquarters and units on patrol.

Tobacco curing can use a lot of wood and lead to significant deforestation. In Hurungwe, we helped farmers fashion energy-efficient tobacco barns. These “rocket barns” cure high-quality tobacco while using less fuelwood.

We’ve supported efforts to map out a larger transboundary area, with plans underway to declare the Mana Pools and Lower Zambezi national parks a 41,543-km² transfrontier park. The project, which would strengthen park management throughout the area, could be a model for collaborative management ensuring ecosystem resilience.