"Synergies Between Livestock Husbandry and Wildlife Conservation in Southern Province, Zambia"

Dale Lewis

Wildlife conservation solutions in rural areas surrounding protected areas are often hidden in a complex web of livelihood constraints and needs that increase the risks for wildlife/human conflicts. Most wildlife managers are not trained to look for such relationships and rural development specialists generally do not adapt their rural livelihood solutions to conservation. This paper illustrates the critical importance of building conservation programs around such relationships for wildlife areas where the potential for human/wildlife conflict exists. Such conflicts are especially exacerbated when human populations suffer hardships of food shortages and low income. Two real-life examples are given in Zambia where disease of domestic species, cattle and poultry, plays an important role in influencing rates of poaching. Pilot studies show how appropriate interventions that enhance the synergy between wildlife conservation and human livelihoods through applied animal husbandry can lead to low cost solutions to wildlife conservation.