UN agency offers Zambian poachers food for guns
Date: 11-Apr-02
Country: ZAMBIA
Richard Ragan, the WFP resident representative in Zambia, said the WFP was working with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to provide relief food to poachers in South Luangwa National Park, a key tourist area.
Up to 60 percent of Luangwa Valley's 60,000 population had resorted to poaching from the park as the country grapples with severe food shortages following capricious weather that slashed Zambia's crop production in the 2000/2001 season, he said.
"Selected households will receive 150 kg (330 lbs) of maize, which is enough to last for a three-to four-month period," Ragan told Reuters.
"Hunters view the wildlife area as a sort of a bank."
The shortages are expected to continue into this year.
Dale Lewis, WCS director in Zambia, said about 2,000 animals were expected to be spared in 2003 as a result of the programme.
"We simply saw an opportunity to take a bad situation and turn it into something positive by not only feeding the people, but protecting a vital part of the Zambian economy - its wildlife," Lewis said.
The WFP estimates that 1.1 million Zambians need emergency relief food this year. The number may rise because eight districts severely affected by drought are yet to be assessed.