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Signing of the Dambwa Forest Agreement for the lions release area in Zambia Newsletters » Oct/Nov 2006 » Signing of the Dambwa Forest Agreement for lion release Zambia Dear all, Good News for the lions at the Dambwa Forest in Livingstone, Zambia On Thursday 10th August, I flew to Lusaka to sign a 50 year lease agreement between the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (ALERT) and the Zambian government, represented by the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and the Zambian Forestry Commission. This is an absolutely incredible achievement for our lion release and rehabilitation programme, but also of course, for African Encounter (of which African Impact is the volunteer arm), its conservation efforts and all that we stand for! A few points: Size.  Dambwa Forest is 15,000 acres in size, with a potential add-on of a further 10,000 acres in two years time. Description.  The area comprises uninhabited indigenous forest area, combined with undulating open savannah grasslands. Location.  The boundary is less than five hundred metres from Livingstone International airport.  It is approximately 3 km from the Zambezi river and from the town of Livingstone.  The area has an approximately 4 km long border with the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park.  The spray from the Victoria Falls and parts of the Zambezi river can be seen from most high lying areas of Dambwa Forest. Future areas in Zambia.  The Forestry Commission and ZAWA are both very excited about the lion R and R programme and have agreed that, should the programme be a success, (which I have no doubt it will) that they would be very keen for us to take up a further nine Forestry areas, all bordering Zambian National Parks, for similar types of programmes. Research.  For those interested in research, opportunities are limitless.  Besides the immediate lion R and R programme, the Zambian government is very keen for ALERT to undertake a complete study of lions across Zambia.  According to the IUCN, less is known about the lions in Zambia than the other countries in Africa. It is our intention to develop an International Research Centre for African wildlife in the Dambwa Forest area.  I can think of no better location to attract international attention and funding than the Victoria Falls. Volunteers.  The potential for volunteer programmes both at Dambwa Forest and other locations in Zambia is enormous and we are excited about the potential involvement of past and future volunteers in this ground-breaking programme. Wildlife.  It is our intention, once Dambwa Forest is fully fenced, to translocate hundreds of different animals into the area to provide its own ecosystem and also, of course, prey for the lions.  We are presently having discussions with ZAWA about assisting with the sourcing and provision of these animals. African Encounter.  This is without doubt the most significant achievement in the history of African Encounter, with unlimited opportunities.  At the moment international visitors to Victoria Falls need to travel to Botswana to see lions and other species not available in the area.  Dambwa will soon be able to provide that opportunity.  Nine international hotels are currently under construction in the Victoria Falls region!!  I believe that African Encounter has the perfect team, in all departments, to tackle this amazing project head on. Finance.  We have several people working on raising USD3,000,000 that will be necessary for financing the fencing of Dambwa Forest and the Research Centre.  Together with Chundu Island, I think that Dambwa offers hugely exciting and challenging opportunites and I believe that we can all have a great deal of fun developing these two projects. Please forward this great news to all friends, agents and associates of African Encounter. Best regards to all, Andrew and Wendy Conolly   LION PROGRAMME UPDATE FROM OUR SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, DAVID YOUDON It’s exiting times for our lion rehabilitation project with two release sites now signed, so there is much speculation as to which lions are being released where.  We are hoping to take around 20 lions to Zambia to commence client lion walks, a breeding program and a stage 3 release.  The exact list is still to be confirmed, but some likely inclusions for release are Amy, Elsa, Melanie & Luke. The breeding program will almost certainly include Maximus, and likely Puma as well.  As for females, under consideration are Anna, and the first opportunity to breed for Sandy & Chemma The Dollar Block release site is coming along well with the clearing of the boundary area almost complete and the construction of poles and fencing well under way at both Antelope Park and our Bulawayo workshop.  Again, an exact release list is still to be finalised, but we are looking at up to 12 or 13 lions that may well include Mickey and Milo as well as Casper, Mufassa & Zuva. At Antelope Park we currently have two sets of walking lions, the 3K’s of Kwali, Kwezi & Kenge and the feisty 3P’s of Phyre, Paka & Praise. We are not sure which, as the actual kill happened out of sight, but either Kwali or Kwezi recently managed to pull down a young wildebeest on one of our night encounters.  The K’s have been moved to waterfall enclosure and are now a whopping 22 months old, but are as docile as ever. Paka has taken to stalking every living animal, whilst Phyre continues to concentrate on people.  There is a quite a buzz about how good Paka could be when released, and she may get her chance next year in the Dambwa Forest.  Praise after long periods of illness during his life has turned into a stunning, healthy young teddy bear – with a cheeky side, who spends much of his time beating up his petulant sisters.  The P’s are currently residing at River enclosure and are loving their new walk, especially Phyre who loves the water in the river line.        At Bush enclosure the recent reintroduction of Ariel & Ashanti to their siblings, Apollo, Achillies & Athena to recreate the 5A’s has got everyone talking.  The gang are taken out during the day. Using a vehicle, and it is breathtaking to see five lions coming up behind you in a line.  At night Apollo has shown himself as having the killer instinct with a recent methodical kill of an impala.  Achillies came in to give the final neck grip, but this was Apollo’s night all the way. In camp the 2L’s of Landela & Ltalo are still very skittish at 3 ½ months old, but regular walks with volunteers, and now client cub viewings will hopefully settle them down. Anna & Teddy have done it again, producing 3 beautiful young cubs, Amghela (meaning “welcome”, Amandla (power) and Acacia (a spiky tree that inflicts wounds on all horse riders!).  The one male and 2 females will be raised by project manager Niki Brown with the assistance of the volunteers who go googly eyed at the sight of these little fluff balls.  We had to take them out very early from mum as for a reason unknown to us Anna was showing little interest in them.  But they are doing well and are a very welcome to the Antelope Park family. Up at breeding program PK gave birth in August, but unfortunately lost all three. However, we are hoping her sister Cheeky will have more luck when she gives birth in the near future.  Unfortunately losing cubs is a natural part of lion life, with only 30 – 40% surviving to the age of one in the wild.  We of course have a higher survival rate through the additional care we are able to give our young ones, but it is always hard to lose cubs. Down at Victoria Falls Amanzi is showing Nala & Narnia who is boss.  By all accounts, and I am sure everyone who is reading this who has met Amanzi will agree that he is, well let’s just say, a unique looking lion.  His small head on a long body gives him the look of a sausage dog, and he seems to be growing a shaggy mane, well everywhere really.  He has a wonderful character and is really helping to calm down the two girls. Phoenix, Penduka & Becky continue to walk with clients.  They recently found a dead baboon and it took sometime to convince the grumpy Phoenix that the walk really did need to continue. The Victoria Falls 2L’s of Langa and Lokatula are chomping their way through their meat and growing quickly.  They are feisty young things and love to play. So all is well in the land of lions.  We hope to bring you the definitive release list in the very near future.  Watch this space. News from our Livingstone community programmes VOLUNTEER PROFILE: Sean Crawford's experience on our Kenya Expedition 2006 FEATURED PROJECT: Cape Town Street Kids and Community Programme Signing of the Dambwa Forest Agreement for the lion release area in Zambia Pathfinders Bush Awareness and Survival Courses News Snippets Subscribe to our free newsletter Africa volunteer opportunities       print this page | bookmark this page (CTRL-D) | send to a friend back to top