Bridging Divides, Building Connections

One November morning in North Luangwa National Park in Zambia, Gift Chambatu, an anti-poaching officer with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, receives an urgent call. A resident of Nkomba village has reported a man suspected of possessing illegally obtained bushmeat, a possible poacher. Gift acts quickly, dispatching a team of rangers to investigate. In an area that is home to Zambia’s only population of black rhinos and the country’s largest elephant population, there is no time to lose.

On arrival in Nkomba, the situation escalates almost immediately. As the rangers attempt to arrest the suspect, his wife begins shouting, accusing them of wanting to harm him. Within minutes, neighbors gather in the street. Shouting turns to anger, and soon stones are being thrown as a crowd gathers around the house. Gift Chambatu’s team is trained for precisely such situations and manages to prevent further escalation. The rangers carefully withdraw with the suspect and the confiscated meat.

Almost 800 kilometers away, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Zambia’s Nsumbu National Park, another call comes in. Sturburn Chuma, Community Conservation Officer for Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) in Zambia, hears from the village head of Chambezi: rangers have arrested a man. He, too, is accused of possessing illegally obtained bushmeat, and tensions in the community are rising rapidly.

Sturburn Chuma immediately sets off for the village. But when he arrives in Chambezi, conversations with those involved quickly reveal that emotions are running too high for everyone to come together and resolve the conflict on the spot. Instead, they agree on a plan.

A month later, Sturburn Chuma returns to Chambezi, this time for a joint meeting with community members, rangers, and traditional leaders (chiefs). Promoting dialogue and mutual understanding between different groups involved in conservation is central to his work around Nsumbu National Park.

In Chambezi, an intensive exchange brings the community’s concerns into the open. For some time, residents have been worried about their personal safety while living alongside wildlife. There is also frustration that natural resources the village has long considered its own are now protected and can no longer be used.

Gift Chambatu and Sturburn Chuma, both 29 years old, have worked in conservation for almost a decade and are familiar with such conflicts. In communities near protected areas, rangers have sometimes been perceived as a threat for years, while conservation has been seen as a restriction on people’s land, resources, and ways of life.

These perceptions are rooted in an outdated approach to conservation that, for too long, excluded people, particularly those most directly affected. In some cases, this exclusion has continued for generations.

Sturburn Chuma understands this perspective from personal experience. He grew up in Muchinga Province, west of Nsumbu National Park. Hunting wildlife was a normal part of life there, and he shared the community’s critical attitude toward rangers.

One day, an elephant wandered into his village. Sturburn was struck by the animal’s grace and the hostility it encountered within his community. The experience made him realize how closely people’s relationships with wildlife, their needs, and their attitudes are connected to conservation, and that conservation can only succeed when people work together.

Today, Sturburn Chuma and his team work to encourage dialogue between rangers and communities around Nsumbu National Park. Regular meetings between villagers and rangers, for example, aim to resolve tensions before they escalate while strengthening mutual understanding and a shared sense of responsibility.

Men and women from local villages can also raise concerns anonymously through feedback boxes.
In addition, Community Conservation Banks (COCOBAs) support the growth of small businesses. Managed by the communities themselves, they provide men and women with access to microfinance, offering an attractive alternative to poaching.

Further south in Zambia, similar initiatives are underway. Gift Chambatu leads anti-poaching activities throughout North Luangwa National Park, coordinating patrols and training rangers.

His team now works alongside an outreach team that organizes meetings in surrounding villages. These gatherings address issues such as human-wildlife conflict, alternative livelihoods, and the protection of community property. COCOBAs have also been part of conservation efforts here for many years.

This comprehensive, collaborative approach to conservation is making a difference. Both Gift Chambatu and Sturburn Chuma are seeing the impact of these initiatives firsthand.

Conflicts between rangers and communities have become significantly less frequent in both national parks, and people feel safer. Attitudes toward conservation appear to have changed, particularly among younger generations.

Gift Chambatu recalls receiving more than 600 applications from motivated men and women in surrounding villages when new positions were advertised for the North Luangwa National Park team last year.

Sturburn Chuma is already witnessing this shift in classrooms. During school presentations and career talks about conservation, he sees many interested faces looking back at him.

The challenges Gift Chambatu and Sturburn Chuma face in their respective roles remain complex, and they extend far beyond their national parks and Zambia itself.

After all, conservation is as much about people and their livelihoods as it is about wildlife and habitats.

Both young Zambians feel a personal responsibility to strengthen this understanding. They also want to ensure that the next generation is at the forefront of shaping conservation in their own communities.

The authors met during the Frankfurt Spring School on Conservation Project Management 2026 and wrote this article together.