Copper: a poisoned gift
Under Zambia's fertile soil lies more than 20 million tons of copper, mainly in the Copperbelt region, making the country the seventh largest producer in the world. The government is increasingly banking on this exploitation, which it has largely privatized in recent years. Extraction is intensifying, in correlation with the increase in deforestation, since the mines are largely located in forest basins, which are disfigured. But the inhabitants do not give up. In 2015, several thousand people filed a complaint against the Indian mining company Vedanta, accused of dumping toxic waste, particularly sulfuric acid, into the water. The mining giant is said to be responsible for severe illnesses and the destruction of the environment, and therefore, by extension, the livelihoods of many villagers. While denying its involvement, the Indian multinational has compensated the villagers, in an amount that has remained confidential. This is not the first such lawsuit in Zambia, which regularly suffers from copper mine pollution. In 2011, five NGOs launched a legal battle with Glencore, the operator of Mopani, the country's largest mine, for tax evasion and endangering public health. The case led to the nationalization of the mine.
The forest threatened by the saws
Zambia's forests are facing fierce deforestation, particularly in the north of the country, which alone accounts for more than half of the country's forested areas. According to Global Forest Watch, nearly 9% of Zambia's forests have disappeared in the last 20 years. And this slaughter is increasingly intense: it has even doubled in the last decade, compared to the previous one!
The causes are multiple: the use of charcoal is still very common to cope with the numerous power outages; teak, a precious wood, very present around the Zambezi, is decimated to be the object of a juicy trade; the practice of agricultural slash-and-burn, locally called chitemene, often degenerates into important bush fires; the cultivated fields are always more numerous; and finally, copper mining leads to the destruction of many ecosystems.
However, the situation is so alarming that it is generating strong reactions among international actors, who are multiplying safeguard programs. In 2017, for example, the World Bank released $33 million to enable Zambia to implement a strategy to deal with global warming, and in particular to combat the felling of trees. The REDD+ program, launched in 2008 by the United Nations and of which Zambia is one of the first countries affected, has also made it possible to install a forest monitoring system, which facilitates the collection of data on deforestation.
The multiplication of hydroelectric power plants
It is Zambia's many rivers that supply its electricity consumption. The Kariba Dam, which supplies electricity to Lusaka, is the most spectacular. This is the most spectacular of all. When it was built in the 1950s, it was the largest dam in the world, and it caused the creation of what is still the largest artificial lake in the world, Lake Kariba, by holding back water. This inundation forever engulfed a rich ecosystem, forcing animals and indigenous peoples to flee. This has led to the creation of Operation Noah, a six-year project aimed at relocating wildlife that lost its habitat as a result of the dam's construction. Thus, 6,000 animals (elephants, antelopes, birds, snakes and many others) were relocated, notably to the Matusadona National Park, created for the occasion. But the region could be in for another destructive flood, since without proper maintenance, the dam could break, raising fears of an unprecedented ecological disaster. However, if this dam, and the many others present on the territory have drastically disturbed the ecological balance of the region, all is not black. Thus, the sudden retention of fresh water created has allowed the proliferation of many mammals.
Towards the end of poaching?
Animals are surely another of Zambia's shamelessly plundered riches.
The country is home to the third largest population of elephants in Africa, along with other large mammals: lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes... Zambia is indeed one of the 30 richest countries in the world in mammals! Unfortunately, such abundance attracts a lot of covetousness, and poaching rages on. Rhinoceros horns and elephant tusks join pangolins, the most poached animal in the world, in cargo ships bound for Asia, where they are perceived as remedies by traditional Chinese medicine. In addition to these Chinese poachers, there are American hunters who are great fans of trophy hunting. By invoking an overpopulation of species, some of which are threatened with extinction, the authorities deliver quotas of trophies to be killed to tourists who pay a price.
The WWF estimates that Zambia has lost nearly 40% of its wildlife over the past 40 years to poaching and deforestation. However, separate programs are multiplying their victories, as is the case of the North Luangwa Conservation Program. Founded in 1986 by the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, this program has, among other things, set up a guard system in the North Luangwa National Park, which is home to 63% of the country's elephants. In 2018, the program is savoring its victory: no elephants were killed in the park during the year, and poaching in the surrounding area has dropped by 50%.
National parks: keys to conservation
Nearly a third of Zambia's territory is protected: a score well above the international average. However, if the will is there, the effectiveness is less so, since the level of protection of the parks does not reach international standards. Poaching, logging, and even mining are still present, although the protected areas have undergone an extraordinary overhaul in the last twenty years.
Of the country's 20 national parks, South Luangwa National Park is of the greatest importance. With over 40 species of mammals and 400 species of birds, its concentration of wildlife is among the highest in the world! The park is home to the rare Rhodesian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis thornicrofti).
However, it is the Kafue National Park which, with its 22,400 km², is the largest in the country. Also, it is made up of many ecosystems typical of Zambia: miombo, this wooded savanna, dambos, which are formed of flooded grasslands and mopane forests. Only a small part of this biological paradise is accessible, leaving the rest all the more preserved, and partly unexplored.
Finally, Lower Zambezi National Park may only be 4,000 km², but it faces its Zimbabwean cousin Mana Pools National Park. And since the border between the two parks is purely administrative and there is no fence separating them, the protected area is more than 10,000 km²! Formerly the personal reserve of the Zambian president, the park has largely escaped safari tourism, and thus remains one of the wildest in the country.
The government shows its willingness to continue the fight for the protection of nature, by still opening protected areas today, such as the Lusaka National Park, which opened in 2015.
