Local communities drive vulture conservation initiative across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area: a success story of Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia

The Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area’s (KAZA TFCA) expanse of 520 000 km2 lies in the Kavango and Zambezi River basins where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge encompassing sixteen National Parks. In these areas, local communities are getting into conflict with species such as elephants and hippos which results in the death of the animals through the use of poison, leading to the death of various scavenging species such as vultures through unintentional and international poisoning. Through transboundary collaborations, the solution focused on improved vulture conservation through the active participation of local communities in and around the three protected areas of the KAZA TFCA area while increasing awareness and capacity building on vulture conservation.These enabled the formation of Vulture Support groups mandated to champion vulture conservation in their respective areas.