The boundary of nature protection Zambian studies

Abstract

In Zambia, during the months of work in nature conservation we often faced to the fact that the aims of different game and nature protection projects are against the real or putative interests of local communities. The flourishing protected populations inside the national parks reached a level where they cause negative effects, not only inside but also outside the park, on agricultural lands. They threaten the subsistence of the people around the park. The starving Zambians keep count of elephants foraging on agricultural lands, lions and crocodiles attacking people and livestock as ancient enemies whilst nature conservation organizations are concerned with protection of these populations. So species' judgment is different, on one hand it is potential source of food, on the other hand it is a value in nature protection. The borderline between humanism and nature conservation is not clear, especially in a starvation zone, where someone's authority to talk about CITES list can be under protest.