First Quantum, through our Trident Foundation, has been selected as the private management partner by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife in Zambia for the protection and rehabilitation of the West Lunga Management Area.
Between 2014 and 2019, we invested US$3.2 million in West Lunga under a Memorandum of Understanding with the DNPW. The funding enabled recruitment, training, equipping and pay for wildlife rangers, vehicle maintenance and transport, infrastructure development and implementing conservation related livelihood programmes in surrounding communities.
As of 2019, we continue our work with the DNPW as a future Private Management Partner for a Public Private Community Partnership. This is an innovative partnership which will aim to restore West Lunga to a complete and functioning ecosystem.
The West Lunga Management Area, comprising the West Lunga National Park and surrounding Game Management Areas, covers 11,700 square kilometres – almost 3 million acres – and has the potential for enormous ecological and economic benefits.
It connects to the much larger Kafue Ecosystem, potentially providing a regional habitat corridor. It contains large tracts of mavunda forest, believed to play a critical role in mitigating the effects of climate change. The forests regulate rainwater run-off and feed into the headwaters of Zambia’s two biggest river systems: the Kafue and the Zambezi.
The area once supported large populations of mammals including elephant, buffalo, sable, roan, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, lion, leopard and wild dog.
We believe that our long-term strategy with the DNPW and local communities can restore West Lunga to a thriving biome, complete with self-sustaining mammal populations, which would be attractive to Zambian and international tourism. By facilitating the necessary systems and infrastructure to support eco-tourism, we would provide North-West Province with a new and sustainable source of livelihood.