Environmental policy and administrative management

The project is entitled Integrated Ecosystem Management in Serenje District in the Luangwa Valley. It is targeting 600 households in the valley area of Chisomo, Chimbaya and Kaombe. This intervention in the valley was necessitated due to the unsustainable lifestyle of people in the targeted area which is mostly poaching followed by peasant farming using poor traditional methods like Chitemene system (cut tree branches and burning) and intensive fishing using unorthodox methods ( river poisoning and blasting). The area is arid and has two extreme kinds of weather patterns that cause drought and floods. People farm along the banks of the Rivers Lukusashi, Luangwa and surrounding streams where there is rich alluvial soil using chemical fertilizers, but when these rivers and streams flood (annually) crops are washed away. Chemical fertilizers are used in the production of these crops. These chemical fertilizers destroy the soil fertility and when washed into the river the chemicals pollute the river affecting life in the river. More over the weather pattern in the valley causes two extreme conditions in the upper land and lower land (drought and floods) . Thus, when people plant on the high lands, their crops are hi by drought and they wither away little to no harvest and when they plan on the river basin are their plants are washed away when the river bursts its banks causing flush floods. These disasters are annual occurrences in the valley. As such people in the valley are often times hit by hunger. Because of hunger due to limited livelihood options caused by weather and geographical conditions in the area, people resort to poaching from the Luangwa South National Park and intense fishing using illegal methods. In so doing, the biodiversity of the Luangwa national park,the rivers and streams is affected and among others animals and other living organisms get depleted. AIM OF THE PROJECT Thus, the main objective of the project is To support communities towards ecosystem and natural resource management . PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1. To build capacity of communal group leaders and CRBs in the target communities by the end of the intervention. 2. To promote Winter wetland cultivation, conservation farming and small scale seed production (seed bank creation). 3. To carry out Campaigns on soil conservation, protective early burning and effects of deforestation. 4. To engage communities in semi intensive pastoral systems (rearing of local chickens). 5. To provide the targeted communities with Entrepreneurship skills training and linkages to markets

Zambia