Prize-winning campaigner Hammerskjoeld Simwinga says his worst moment was in 1996 when the north Zambian conservation and anti-poaching project where he was working collapsed as corrupt officials seized its assets.
LONDON -- Prize-winning campaigner Hammerskjoeld Simwinga says his worst moment was in 1996 when the north Zambian conservation and anti-poaching project where he was working collapsed as corrupt officials seized its assets.
With American project founders Delia and Mark Owens forced to leave, deprived of contacts, finance and friends, Hammer -- as he is known -- felt abandoned.
"It was very difficult for me because there were no resources for me. There was no transport," he told Reuters. "Those were the worst times of my life."
The aim of the project to the north east of Lusaka was to end poaching in the area by helping villagers generate alternative incomes while also driving home the message that no wildlife means no tourists and therefore no money.
Against official antagonism and with little aid at first Simwinga not only kept the North Luangwa Valley project alive but expanded it.
His efforts will be recognised on Monday when he is awarded one of the six annual Goldman Environmental Prizes for grassroots environmental action, each worth $125,000.
Previous winners of the Goldman awards which have been handed out each year since 1990 include Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and executed Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Simwinga went from village to village either by hitching lifts, hiring transport or walking for days at a time to get to the far-flung communities where the main income was poaching rhinos and elephants, which by that time had been all but exterminated.
"It was for me to continue working there. Because if I had left as well then the work we had worked for so many years to build would have just collapsed," he said on his first visit to London.
STRONG PERSUASION
With the help of the Zambia Wildlife Agency, he persuaded local communities to set up cottage industries like sunflower oil, plant food crops, and keep chickens and sheep instead of poaching.
"We deliberately pushed our resources to the womenfolk in the community because we knew that working with the women was the strongest part of persuasion," he said.
"As we continued empowering the women their economies in their households became more visible and more people started looking at these households ... prospering," he said.
But there was also some stick to go alongside the carrot.
Part of the scheme was provision of a community grinding mill. If it emerged that poaching was still continuing then the mill would be withdrawn with consequent loss of income putting pressure on poachers to stop their activities.
"The next time we went into the village we found the women coming to us and saying 'Hammer, I think we will do better next time. Can you bring back our grinding mill," said the slim 42-year-old, who was named after U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold who died in a mystery air crash in Zambia in 1961.
The project began with 14 villages. This dropped to nine when the Owens' were forced to leave in 1996.
Now, 11 years later, 64 villages comprising some 35,000 people are taking part. Prosperity is booming, poaching has dwindled, wildlife is returning and with it the tourists.
"We are looking at a much more sustainable way for the community to get money from the resource which is just next to them. We know very well that if they can keep the park alive they will continue gaining from it," Simwinga said.
Source: Reuters
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