Perceptions and attitudes of local communities towards kafue national park, Zambia

Abstract

A questionnaire was administered to residents in three chiefdoms of Mumbwa Game Management Area (GMA) in Zambia with the intention of determining levels of awareness and knowledge of some of the neighbouring Kafue National Park’s attributes as well as perceptions and attitudes towards the park. Our findings suggest that the local communities in Mumbwa GMA were relatively unaware of the park’s attributes, despite their approval of its proclamation. Even though the majority of respondents (65.6 per cent) enjoyed friendly relations with the park authority, the general perception towards the park was that it was government property and had little to do with them. This is corroborated by the number of respondents (68.4 per cent) that had no reason to visit the park or felt barred from entering the park. A number of reasons accounted for this apathy. One is that there were very few benefits accruing to the local community directly from the park. Another factor was the mutual suspicion between park staff and the community. This is exacerbated by land disputes between the three chiefs in the GMA. These disputes were the result of land policies during the colonial and pre-colonial eras that led to forced migrations and reallocation of land in the eastern GMA. When dealing with issues around the park and conservation in Mumbwa GMA, it would be prudent to deal first with the land disputes between the different stakeholders.