The video below highlights our objectives and shows a few of the amazing wildlife photographs from the CD for sale (see the right hand side) Proceeds from the sale of the photographic CD go directly to help save the animals in Zimbabwe.

Following a recent visit to Zimbabwe it was agreed to form a new organization with the following objectives:

• increasing the awareness and motivating people to promote wildlife and environment conservation in Zimbabwe
• launching public education programmes on preservation and protection of wildlife in Zimbabwe
• promotion of programmes in schools in Australia and Zimbabwe, which advance the objectives of the Association
• assisting with not-for-profit wildlife research and breeding programmes in Zimbabwe
• promotion of eco-tourism to Zimbabwe

In 2005 a devastating drought struck Hwange National Park and the National Parks and Wildlife Authority (PAWMA) plagued by lack of funding and decrease in tourist arrivals weren’t able to keep the boreholes going and only a handful of waterholes had water, resulting in thousands of animals dying of thirst.

Angus Preston, owner and director of The Hide Safari Camp in Hwange, responded by forming the Friends of Hwange Trust in November 2005 with his friend Gordon Brown. Soon after, Dave Dell and Beck Edwards were asked to be trustees along with honorary trustee and Ernst & Young Partner, Paul Turner.

The Hwange National Park is located in the western part of Zimbabwe two hours from Victoria Falls and is Zimbabwe’s largest and best-known national park. At 14,500 sq. km it is half the size of Belgium. The area was declared a National Park in 1928 and today is home to 108 species of mammal and over 400 bird species, one of the most diverse parks in the world. The Park is most famous for its elephant herds which combined make up a population of around 30,000.

The Friends have a number of short, medium and long term plans as follows:

• Install more windmills and/or purchase solar powered pumps at the 10 waterholes currently maintained
• Expand projects to other conservation issues such as anti-poaching and research
• Re-building of troughs, re-routing and installing new piping between the pumps, troughs and pans and reinforcing the trenches to protect the pumps and windmills
• Purchase a reliable vehicle for maintenance purposes
• Flushing out the boreholes and taking over a further 3 strategic pans
• Expand our project to other conservation issues such as anti-poaching and research focusing on the ecology in Hwange

Zimbabwe Wildlife Fund has ambitions to incorporate, form a national database of members and to seek funds to support the Friends of Hwange Trust, other wildlife conservation projects in Zimbabwe, encourage and promote eco-tourism to Zimbabwe and support local schools and education projects.

Wildlife Conservation Education and Research is a post from: Zimbabwe Wildlife Fund