David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

Fewer than 3-5,000 African painted dogs (commonly known as wild dogs) survive in viable populations in just four countries, making this species Africa's most endangered carnivore. DSWF funds the work of the Painted Dog Conservation Project's monitoring and anti-poaching work, the building of its headquarters and its vital education project to encourage tolerance for the dogs from local communities and ranchers.

DSWF is the project's longest and most loyal funder. Since 1995 over £100,000 has been given in grants to support the work of this dedicated team working to save the African Painted Dog.

With the worsening crisis in the country, more and more of DSWF's resources are spent on anti-snare operations and the project has become one of the largest employers in the Hwange area. Hundreds of local children from the region have visited the project's bush camps in the first year where they learn about the value of nature and the environment. The project has also encouraged local artists who make wire sculptures from the snares confiscated from the bush by the project's anti-poaching teams, turning them into works of great beauty, thereby providing incomes for their families and communities.

Iganyana bush camp - community conservation education complex

What is Iganyana bush camp?

Iganyana Bush Camp is located near the Sikumi Forest area bordering Hwange National Park. The sole mission of this purpose-built camp is to educate children about nature conservation principles. The bush camp is a part of a larger complex called the Community Conservation Education Complex (CCEC), founded, built and operated by the Painted Dog Conservation Project, a registered private voluntary organization in Zimbabwe. "Iganyana" is the Sindebele word for the painted hunting dog, or African wild dog, Lycaon pictus, a critically endangered species. Hwange National Park is one of the last refuges of this fascinating and ecologically important species.

Who can participate in the bush camp programme?
    
Local primary schools may be eligible to attend the programme free of charge. The pilot programme of a three-day experience includes all grade six students from fifteen primary schools from communities that border Hwange's painted dog population. Schools from outside this area must cover the expense of their camp stay, plus donate a fee great enough to sponsor a local school, thereby allowing the project to expand the free program to new candidate schools. Potential "Donor Schools" are encouraged to contact DSWF for the most current calculation of costs.

What do students do at Iganyana bush camp?

The educational programme emphasizes hands-on experiences directly in wild habitats. Students are rotated through a series of specially designed activities in small groups. Each activity group is assigned to a specially trained professional guide for the length of the stay. Each student is provided with an activity logbook, in which they record their discoveries.

Which activities are offered depends on length of stay and options chosen. Activities offered include:

• Teak woodlands studies : Through a series of scavenger hunts in the safety of the camp's Environmental Education Enclosure, students learn about ecological relationships and adaptations for survival in one of the ecosystem's most interesting natural communities.
• "Meet the Dogs" : Students hike along a raised walkway through the 600-metre Painted Dog enclosure to search for painted dogs. In the Painted Dog rehabilitation facility, students meet orphaned painted dogs and learn about their natural history and the threats to their survival.
• "Game drive" : Students learn about wildlife adaptations for survival, through this game drive inside Hwange National Park.
• "Tree search" : Students use botanical terms and concepts to find and identify native trees by their characteristics, viewed as adaptations to their habitat and niche.
• "Game walk" : Students are led into the bush by an armed and experienced guide to learn about animal behaviour and the ecology of different natural communities.
• "Campfire" : Students sing and play campfire games around a bonfire.
• "Night walk" : Having experienced the raised walkway by daylight, students now experience it in the dark to discover the nocturnal sounds of the teak woodlands.
• Video night : Students watch and discuss "Hunters in Twilight" to learn about the research and intervention procedures used by Painted Dog Conservation project to try to save Hwange's painted dog population from extinction
• "Night drive" : Students learn about behavioural adaptations to nocturnal niches on this exciting drive into adjacent Sikumi National Forest.

Send a local child to bush camp!

The Project provides a free-of-charge bush camp experience for over 600 children from communities that border the painted dog population of Hwange National Park. The three day programme, at the CCEC's beautiful Iganyana Bush Camp, teaches grade six students about the plight of the painted dogs, ecological relationships and the importance of conserving wildlife.

During the camp, children meet our orphaned painted dogs, engage in hands-on discovery activities in the teak woodlands of the Environmental Education Exclosure and go on their first game drive into neighbouring Hwange National Park. Few of the people who live in the communities that border the park, ever have the opportunity to enter it and see what all the excitement is about. How can people be expected to appreciate and protect a park they are never able to enter?

This intensive conservation education programme has an amazing impact resulting in real community support for our conservation endeavours - it is the only hope for a long-term solution to save the painted dogs from extinction. But we need funds to operate this vital bush camp, to cover such things as educational materials and meals for the children and salaries for the camp staff. With hundreds of children participating each year, the cost per child comes to just £20. Why not do your bit to help ensure the future of this endangered species by sponsoring a local child to attend Iganyana Bush Camp - either as an individual or through your school?

We soon hope to expand the programme to reach more schools from communities that border the park, but we need your support.

Hope in a Land of Despair

With few such alternative educational resources or enrichment opportunities in their lives, the Painted Dog Conservation's Bush Camp programme has turned out to be a highlight in the childhood of local students. DSWF are one of the principal supporters of this life-changing programme, which is conducted over four days at our purpose built Iganyana Children's Bush Camp. The programme introduces students to native species, ecological relationships, the adverse effects of extinction and the need for nature conservation. Concepts are reinforced through hands-on, discovery and creative activities in small groups.

On the last day of the camp, the children never want to leave and wish that the camp were longer, they sing enthusiastically all the way home, waving and smiling at everyone along the road. Our drivers report that the song they sing the most is "Londolozani Imvelo" a song about conservation of natural resources taught to them by our Community Development Officer. People along the road seem to know where they are coming from and laugh, waving back with equal enthusiasm. Many parents have expressed appreciation for us providing a sense of hope for their children, where previously there had been none at all, a light at the end of the tunnel if you like.

Education is a crucial element of any conservation project and while it is noted that the Children leave the camp with great enthusiasm for nature conservation, spreading their enthusiasm and newfound knowledge to their families and other members of their communities, it often takes generations to significantly affect attitudes. However, the relationship between the project and the community has been affected in a very positive manner already, such is the impact of the programme. Having seen the local wildlife, experienced the excitement and beauty of Hwange National Park, bush camp graduates have more of an emotional investment in caring for it. Previously, locals have been expected to protect something that they received no direct benefit from or had experience of. Thus we are generating more of a stakeholder attitude toward our conservation goals and the protection of the painted dogs' in particular.

For me, one anecdotal story sums up the success of the Children's Bush Camp. Wilton Nsimango, our EEO, conducted a post camp visit to one of the schools, which lies deep in the woodlands bordering Hwange National Park, an area patrolled regularly by our DSWF funded anti poaching units, as it is an area of high painted dog activity. Wilton was attempting, as always, to measure the impact of the Bush Camp when the parents of three of the children who attended the camp approached him nervously. He had never met them before and was delighted by the story they told.

Two days after returning from the Bush Camp, the 3 children, still full of excitement and wonderment, took a walk into the nearby woodland, only to discover a series of freshly set snares. They raced back to the village and confronted their parents, imploring them to take the matter up with the village Head Man immediately. The besieged parents duly obliged and approached the Head Man with this news. He responded to the children's pleas and followed the children to the snares - how could he not! The adults recognised the poacher's footprints and so went to his home, only to find it empty. With the children's persuasive chatter providing them with no alternative, the adults returned to the snares and waited in ambush, knowing the poacher would return to reap the rewards of his deadly work. Sure enough, as the sun began to set, the poacher returned and was promptly "arrested" by the Head Man, who then escorted him to the local Police Station, where he was charged with the criminal offence of poaching!!

If that is the ONLY impact the Bush Camp has, it has already saved the lives of hundreds of animals.

The expense of operating a "free of charge" programme, which is hoped, will one day expand to every community that borders the park is considerable. PDC are encouraging "donor schools' from outside the area to participate in the bush camp programme, the aim being that each "donor" school will sponsor one local school's costs in the process. However, if the programme is to expand to more schools, donor funds will be needed. Such funding will never be more effective. Going directly towards educating local communities, garnering grassroots support in the area and involving local people in the conservation of the painted dogs, one of Africa's, if not the planet's, most endangered species.

By Peter Blinston
With input from Wilton Nsimango and Bruce Lombardo.

Click here t o see more on the project