Conserve Global Quarterly Progress Report


Period: July to September 2022

 

Introduction

This report summarises our progress over the period July to September 2022 in which the concept of Conserve becomes more and more of a reality as we transition from a start-up to an established entity with a growing team and portfolio of projects. The core Conserve team is now almost fully in place, and we have grown our portfolio from a single project in northern Zambia to three projects across three countries, with a pipeline of other projects percolating and likely to come online before the end of the year.

There is so much to be done in these all too often neglected spaces outside of the national park estate – and we deeply appreciate you accompanying us in this endeavour.

Project Portfolio


Active Projects

1. Tondwa Game Management Area, northern-eastern Zambia

Project activities have significantly gathered pace in this 55,000-hectare expanse in the current dry season. Tondwa Conservation Limited’s (TCL) Project Manager, Mark Ghaui, has formed an Operations Coordination Committee with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), DNPW’s co-management partner in adjoining Nsumbu National Park. We are recruiting and training eight new scouts in Q4, bringing the scout contingent to 25. Construction plans are well-advanced for additional scout accommodation, a joint office complex for TCL, DNPW and the Nsama Community Resources Board (CRB), and a temporary camp for TCL management. At the same time we are scouting out the best site for the permanent HQ and visitor’s center.

 2. Orupupa Conservancy, north-western Namibia

Following two years of negotiations with Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), a leading community-based natural resource management NGO in Namibia, plus many site visits and discussions with the people of 147,000-hectare Orupupa Conservancy, Conserve signed its second project mandate on 10 September 2022 at the Orupupa annual general management meeting held in Namibia. It wasn’t clear who was more excited – the people of Orupupa or the Conserve team – but we are now working hard to put in place a legal entity in Namibia through which Conserve will provide tailored conservation management services to the Orupupa Conservancy for 25 years. We will shortly recruit a project manager and expect to be fully operational early in the new year. This truly spectacular landscape unveils new delights on each subsequent visit, and we cannot wait to share these wonders and our progress in dealing with human-elephant conflict, tourism development and improved landscape management with our community of donors and supporters.

3. Muwai Community Game Reserve, Futi Corridor, southern Mozambique

After more than a year of negotiations, discussions and site visits, including the visit by a delegation of community leaders to Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa, the Tembe people living in the area adjacent to the Futi Corridor of Maputo National Park have set up their own Muwai Community Association in tribute to a legendary king of the Tembe and have earmarked almost 10,000 hectares of community land for inclusion into conservation complex to establish the Muwai Community Game Reserve – in collaboration with Conserve. Our first priority will be to secure $450,000 to erect a game fence. Although the Muwai Community Game Reserve will form part of the broader Maputo National Park, it will be managed separately – but in close collaboration – with Mozambique’s Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), the broader Environmental Protection Area and the Tembe people through the community association. This is the first step in pioneering a new and tremendously exciting model of community-led conservation in Mozambique and Conserve is working with the government to rapidly expand this model elsewhere in the country. We are establishing a legal entity in Mozambique to facilitate this work and deepen local partnerships.

 

Project Development Pipeline

1. Kaputa GMA, north-eastern Zambia

    1. It has always been Conserve’s ambition to secure a mandate to deliver a conservation management service in the 295,000-hectare Kaputa GMA that adjoins and almost surrounds our existing project in Tondwa GMA. Kaputa represents an opportunity to rapidly expand our footprint and associated landscape-scale impact, leverage enormous economies of scale, and connect Nsumbu and Mweru national parks under effective management.
    2. The Kaputa GMA has been included in DNPW’s tender for 24 hunting blocks and we have prepared a detailed and comprehensive “green investment” bid.
    3. Although the bidding process is still very much orientated towards for-profit hunting companies, DNPW has indicated that not-for-profit conservation NGOs are eligible to submit “green investment” bids that promote the restoration of depleted and understocked blocks especially that ordinarily don’t attract much attention from the hunting sector.

2. The Upper and Lower Lunga blocks, Lunga Luswishi GMA, central Zambia

    1. These contiguous blocks form the north-eastern periphery of the greater Kafue ecosystem, a combined open wilderness landscape totalling an enormous 673,400-hectares (Upper Lunga – 305,000 hectares; Lower Lunga – 368,400 hectares).
    2. The Mujimanzovu Community Resources Board (CRB) in the Upper Lunga block has endorsed the project and invited Conserve to work to restore and optimise this area within the GMA. Introductions and discussions with the Ngabwe CRB in Lower Lunga have been supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and are pending.

3. The Ugalla-Katavi-Ruaha (UKR) landscape, south-western Tanzania

    1. Conserve is working with the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), under the informal banner of the Conservation Landscape Alliance, to secure multiple blocks in this landscape on the next auction. Both IAPF and Conserve have secured initial funding and are committed to ongoing fundraising to ensure robust management of these critically important areas in a highly distressed landscape.
    2. Further progress is pending the launch of the auction for vacant blocks in this landscape by TAWA.

Corporate Affairs

  • The pursuit of concession lease acquisitions by individual private investment has been spun out as a separate entity called Natural Capital to be led by Stephen Cunliffe. This evolution is complementary with Conserve’s core model. Conserve anticipates working closely with Steve under the banner of the Conservation Landscape Alliance.
  • We have focused on the legal registration of in-country entities in Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia and Mozambique.
  • The study into the state of the hunting sector in Sub-Saharan Africa completed by Ashley Robson and Morgan Trimble on behalf of Conserve, IAPF and TNC has been reviewed and finalised. This study was commissioned to obtain a more empirical understanding of the likely future trajectory of the sector going forward.
  • The ExCo team spent a week in intensive strategic planning sessions to consolidate learnings from our first full year as a legally registered entity and planning for the next three years, anchored by a more fully elaborated vision, mission and theory of change (see more below under Impact).

Impact and Planning

  • During a week-long strategic retreat this September, the ExCo reflected on the over two years of feedback and experiences and affirmed the underlying rationale of the Conserve model. We grappled with the complexity of our work in various, ever evolving contexts and articulated our Theory of Change. We re-anchored our focus on four core goals: (i) securing natural assets and the services they provide, (ii) building robust and representative local institutions to effectively govern natural resources, (iii) developing and enhancing African leadership in the conservation and development sectors, and (iv) securing the status of conservation as a preferred land use by unlocking its optimal value for people. We look forward to sharing the revised strategic framework in our next quarterly report and reporting out against the targeted indicators in all subsequent reports.
  • This is not merely a theoretical exercise! At site level, we have made excellent strides towards establishing monitoring frameworks in Tondwa, as part of the overarching 5-year business plan. We are first focusing on establishing baselines for plant diversity and habitats, and large mammal populations. This is kicking off this quarter when we will be piloting a natural resource monitoring platform with our partner, Baotree, and Nsama Community Resource Board (CRB) to gain deeper understanding of the flow of goods and services from the GMAs, and the extent to which wildlife interactions are impacting people. In all these aspects, we are working closely with FZS and DNPW to ensure that our approaches are well-aligned for unified messaging, and to effectively share monitoring resources and data for a better understanding of the entire landscape.

Strategic Partnerships and Innovative Financing

  • We signed an MoU with the Peace Parks Foundation to collaborate on fundraising for the Muwai Community Game Reserve in the Futi Corridor.
  • Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) represent Conserve’s most likely pathway to financial sustainability. Accordingly, effort has been applied to (a) understanding existing carbon markets, (b) innovation in the existing carbon markets, and (c) innovation beyond carbon.

Talent pipeline and Team News

Our strategic planning retreat highlighted a major pillar of our work – the investment in up-and-coming talent that will play leadership roles within the African conservation sector. We committed ourselves to finding new ways to identify promising individuals, create career pathways and promote peer mentoring networks and coaching opportunities, all with a particular emphasis on young and diverse cohorts.

Within the communities we are working with, we are committed to creating bursary/scholarship programmes to help remove the financial barriers that prevent school children from attending primary and secondary school. We are also looking at providing support for those students that then want to pursue higher education. As this alum network grows, so too does the overall awareness and expertise available to support ongoing conservation and development efforts. We are also exceptionally pleased to have welcomed the inaugural members of our Technical Advisory Board:

  • Ademola Ajagbe, Regional Managing Director, The Nature Conservancy
  • John Kasaona, Executive Director, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC)
  • Tom Lalampaa, CEO, Northern Rangelands Trust
  • Thandiwe Mweetwa, Wildlife Biologist, Zambia Carnivore Programme
  • Dr Nyambe, Executive Director, KAZA TFCA Secretariat
  • Alice Ruhweza, Regional Director for Africa, WWF
  • Dr Sue Snyman, Research Director, African Leadership University, School of Wildlife Conservation

Funding Highlights

  • Flexible funding from our anchor donors has allowed us to be nimble and responsive to opportunities in Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania. The Lion Recovery Fund has helped us establish ourselves in important lion landscapes in Zambia and Tanzania.
  • We hosted the PAW Foundation team in Tondwa in September. The PAW Foundation has been a critical anchor funder, enabling us to move swiftly in Tondwa and to explore expansion into Kaputa and Lunga Luswishi. Spending time on site together helps create new sparks and we look forward to using trips to connect people more deeply to both the beauty of these places as well as the behind-the-scenes challenges.
  • TNC has been a strategic and helpful partner and with its support we are pursuing fund raising for both Lunga Luswishi blocks in Zambia and the targeted blocks in Tanzania.
  • IAPF, through our collaborative approach in Tanzania, has secured funding to bid on the distressed blocks when they come up for auction (hopefully this year). We are keen to continue to jointly fundraise to support the ongoing operations of these areas once leases are secured.

Key Priorities for Next Quarter

  1. Pipeline development: Submit bids for Upper and Lower Lunga and Kaputa GMAs in Zambia; track tender for blocks in Tanzania.
  2. Enhance capacity to deliver in existing projects: Appoint project manager for Orupupa; co-design a Community Engagement Plan for Tondwa.
  3. Legal entity structures: Conclude establishment of Kunene Conservation as our Namibian special purpose vehicle; establish special purpose vehicle in Mozambique; sign agreement for Muwai Community Game Reserve with Muwai Community Association.
  4. Fundraising: Have a planned trip to the U.S. with a view to expanding our access to HNWIs as our primary priority; conducting an end of year campaign; recruiting new donor managers to expand presence in UK/Europe and U.S.
  5. Develop and discuss the Green Justice Fund with potential donor investors.
  6. Complete theory of change, establish initial impact monitoring framework and update website and business plans.

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