Why was the Rhino Sanctuary set up and why is it so important?

The partnership between Imvelo Safari Lodges and local community elders was two fold.  One was to set up a self sustaining tourism project to provide for community development, but also for the protection of the community.

Protection for the community

It was this second factor that really made me lean in.  The Hwange National Park fences are basically a two wire fence.  Even some of our curious cows in New Zealand would barely be contained by this poor fencing.

What happens is the lions see the cows in nearby village farms as easy pickings and just jump the fences for an easy meal.  And once they jump the fence and realise how easy it is, they just keep coming back.

The elephants aren’t contained by these poor excuses for fences and they wander off for a good explore.  You can only imagine what a 5 tonne elephant does to a year’s worth of crops.  

So you can understand why the local people see the wildlife as a threat.  They are literally decimating their livelihoods.  While we as affluent tourists may think it’s “crazy” to shoot a lion, or genuinely hate these amazing creatures, we are not the ones who are dealing with the fact that these safari animals are taking food off the table of their families.

It’s hard to push the concept of conservation to the detriment of the local people.  But this Rhino Sanctuary is a solution to the problem.

Bringing the rhinos back to Hwange, well just over the fence from the National Park means they needed to fully electrify the perimeter fencing.  What this has done in turn, is provided a huge barrier between the national park and the villages.

Community Development

We were very lucky that we had the opportunity to visit with Mr Johnson, the head elder of Ngamo village, a job he was born into.

Mr Johnson is very forward thinking and he has great goals for his community.  The village now has access to good running water and he dreams of each family having their own supply.  They are looking at how they can fund solar panels so that refrigeration may also be achieved.

Women are being encouraged to build their own business, championed by his wife who is building her own market bakery.  They learned about the concept of dutch ovens and have built one in their home grounds.  I really enjoyed this chat and swapped stories of our own traditional way of cooking for large groups, in a hangi in the ground.  

Beyond improving individuals’ families lives, there are bigger projects underway.  A medical centre is nearing completion with the government sending nurses to work in the area.  A nurse practitioner is the highest qualified medical staff who will be on site.

Many schools are providing school lunches through the tourism project which are often the main meal of the day.  They’ve even built a sports academy, encouraging local people to pursue their passion and like most young people around the world, keep them occupied and out of trouble.

On our visit we witnessed the first regional girls soccer tournament, played at Ngamo.  In partnership with Imvelo Lodges, they provided transport, food and accommodation for all of the incoming teams.  Representative sport for women is almost unheard of and the support for the community was unreal.  They’re breaking down the barriers of girls getting sweaty, and that being okay, which was so awesome to see.

Final Thoughts

After speaking with Mr Johnson, he says their long term goal would be for the rhino to be released back into Hwange National Park, back into the wild.  But at this time, they don’t really trust that the government (who run the National Parks) to help protect them, there is just not enough resource and the risk from poachers is still high.  Although he hopes that in time this will change.

For now, they are looking to introduce female rhinos at the end of 2025 and other local villages are seeing the benefit, and offering their own land to continue with the Rhino Sanctuary “fence” along the southern part of Hwange.

They know that this is just the start and there is a long way to go and I applaud their commitment to making it work and the barriers they have had to overcome to even get to this point.

Changing the mindset of the local people to those who see the value of the protection of the rhino and safari wildlife is tough, however the change is happening.  Matt, head of the Cobra Unit now has local people calling when there are vehicles driving through the village at night that they don’t recognise.  The Cobras make contact and if they aren’t there to visit friends for example, they are shuttled on their way out.  That never used to happen.

The community is seeing the benefit.  Their farms have not been ransacked by lions or elephants since the project began.  Their children are getting resourced in schools and families have access to medical supplies.  There are more working opportunities here and people are motivated to work, amazing considering 95% of Zimbabwe is unemployed.  Change is being made and that’s pretty amazing to witness.