Supporting National Parks in Africa

In recent years, our support has also been directed abroad, where we have been working to protect the national parks in Zambia, Africa. Particularly, we donate to local verified anti-poaching organizations and supporting ecoturism. The local natural environment, which is unique in its diversity, surely deserves our attention.

The Ivan Dejmal Foundation for Nature Conservation was originally a solely local organization focusing on projects in the Czech Jizera Mountains because their condition required intensive care and our full financial support. Since then, the quality of the local forests has improved considerably, and even though we have not yet completely won, we have been able to start applying our experience in nature conservation in other regions. In 2017, we have expanded our scope to the entire Czech Republic and abroad.

Zambia is a beautiful and biodiversity-rich country (savannahs, miombo forests and swamps), although somewhat neglected. The system of the national parks and other protected areas has been established. The management in these protected areas is underfinanced, though. The national parks are damaged in many cases by different adverse activities such as cutting of woods or transfer of the natural environment to agricultural land. For the reasons of our limited financial means, we concentrated our interest only to Kafue NP and partly to Kasanka NP. Poaching has a significant negative impact on protected and highly endangered species, and this is where our support is currently focused.
 
In the recent years, we have contributed more than half a million Czech crowns to organizations that, among other things, deal with the protection of endangered animal species in the national parks. We supported the basic equipment for the park rangers (radios, fuel, ammunition, etc.), and we built 2 boreholes for drinking water in the remote area of the Kafue NP. This project enabled the use of the time formerly spent in bringing the water from remote areas for patrolling and monitoring the rare and endangered species of animals. 

We will be glad if you decide to help us with this long-term project and contribute to the protection of national parks in Africa. We would like to raise at least CZK 100,000 each year, which we will use for operational needs of local organisations that have been involved in these projects intensively and for a long time. We also would like to support one of the eco-camps in Kafue NP.

The development of ecotourism is one of the preconditions for the quality protection of national parks, the improvement of regional prosperity and the involvement of local people in the care of protected areas. Without it, most protected areas are rapidly being destroyed by poaching, illegal tree felling, habitat conversion and destruction or by new settlements. The covid 19 pandemic has had a negative impact on both the development of ecotourism and the quality of management of many national parks. It is believed, however, that this is a temporary condition.

The purpose of the project is to build an eco-tourism facility with environmentally friendly operations, which will be managed and operated by the local community with the supervision and assistance of investors. Several dozen local people will be directly and indirectly employed. Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic and the Czech Agricultural University have conducted a feasibility study which has assessed that one site in Kafue National Park is the most suitable location for such a facility. The study expertly estimates the budget for its construction at between EUR 3.1 and 3.7 million. The study estimates the cost of the project at CZK 7.7 million. Other necessary initial investments, mainly computers, furniture, kitchens and two vehicles, are estimated at CZK 2.8 million. Details are provided in the 2019 feasibility study, which was funded by the Czech Development Agency (Implementation of Ecotourism Infrastructure Development in a National Park in Zambia to Improve Local Economic Prosperity, Reduce Poverty and Improve Natural Environment Conservation). A summary of the study can be found in the comprehensive article called: "Increasing Rural Community Economic Prosperity and Improving Conservation Using Ecotourism Development in Zambia" (Pelc, Lodin 2020), both of which are in the appendix. Representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Arts of Zambia are interested in developing an ecotourism facility.

 Following the construction of the eco-camp, a research facility of the Czech University of Agriculture will be built, where exchange students are expected to stay. The creation of a rescue centre for wounded and otherwise handicapped animals is also in prospect. The centre would be under the responsibility of the Dvůr Králové Zoo Safari. In the future, these projects would be financed separately from the resources of the sponsoring investor or from development aid.

 The necessary funds from Czech development aid for the implementation of the ecotourism facility have not yet been secured. Therefore, our foundation is trying to get financial support in other ways. We are working with all partners - the Czech Agricultural University, the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, Dvůr Králové Zoo Safari, CSOP Pro Africa and we are in contact with the Zambian Ministry of Tourism and Arts and local communities.