Pieces of Learning: Southern Gonarezhou and the Low Veld

-The tribal people who used to live in Gonarezhou before it was taken over for national park land are called the Shangani.  Efforts have been made to get the land back to its previous caretakers.  Arguments against allowing the people back on the land are that tourism and space for wildlife needs to be promoted, as the droughts that occur five out of seven years make the last almost impossible to live upon.  Arguments for allowing people back on include the viewpoint that tribal people like the Shangani know how to live on the land because their ancestors have developed sustainable lifestyles there for thousands of years. The longer they are off the land, the sooner this cultural knowledge dies.

 

 -The land is currently extremely difficult for humans to access, requiring petrol and food to be carried for hundreds of kilometers into the wilderness. Large vehicles are required to fordge rivers and streams during the rainy season.  The debate continues: develop the park more to improve accessibility and, therefore, tourism dollars, or leave the park as pristine as possible?

-The village closest to our entrance to the park is called Chikombedzi.  Known for its poverty, the Shangani people that live there have little economy.  Much of the isolated village consists of living space for people under tarps and blankets.

-Poaching has been a long and uphill battle for the park.  Not all gates are manned, and the vast expanse of wilderness makes it very difficult to supervise.  Anti-poaching teams can be found throughout the park at all times, following herds and monitoring migration numbers.

 

-Though the park does not have one of Africa's most endangered animals, the rhino, it does have another.  Packs of painted dogs roam the land in small numbers. Counting efforts used to monitor these populations have dwindled over the last ten years, though the animals are occasionally found.

-The park at one time had prison locations within it.  This is because the land is so hard to survive upon that no one in their right mind would try to leave the walls in escape.

-Not one road goes all the way through Gonarezhou from the south to the north or from the east to the west.  This meant that if we wanted to see the famous Chilojo Cliffs on the other side of the park, we had to travel about eight hours out of the park before getting a road that would lead back in.  Examples like this mean the park is extremely hard to manage.