How a 25-year partnership is protecting wildlife and communities in Zimbabwe

Conservation that works for communities

The long-term future of Hwange cannot be secured without the people living around it.

Communities neighbouring protected areas often carry the greatest costs of conservation. They may lose crops or farm animals to wildlife, face personal safety risks, and contend with limited access to employment, water, and public services. A successful conservation partnership must recognise those realities.

Through the IFAW-ZimParks partnership, we've helped distribute thousands of school textbooks, support hundreds of students with tuition fees, and provide bicycles to help students travel more safely through areas used by wildlife. We've supported communities to construct boreholes to improve access to water and predator-proof bomas to protect cattle from lions and other carnivores. Primary response teams, well-equipped thanks to this partnership, are strengthening local capacity to respond to human-wildlife conflict.

Together, we enable community gardens to support food security, income generation, and climate resilience. Renovations we supported at Dete Old People's Home have improved living conditions for elderly residents.

These initiatives are not secondary to conservation. They are fundamental to it. When people have access to water, education, food and sustainable income, they are better positioned to participate in conservation and less likely to depend on activities that degrade habitats or threaten wildlife. Conservation thrives when we treat communities not as passive beneficiaries, but as decision-makers, custodians, and essential partners.

From five years to a generation

In 2023, IFAW and ZimParks renewed and expanded their commitment through a landmark 25-year conservation agreement, with an expected investment of approximately US$50 million.

The length of that agreement matters. Ecosystems do not recover according to short funding cycles. Elephant corridors cannot be secured in a single project year. Strong institutions, trusted community relationships, and effective conservation systems take time to build.

A 25-year horizon allows us to think across generations rather than reporting periods. It provides the opportunity to consolidate progress in Hwange National Park, strengthen the Matetsi-Zambezi landscape, and scale community-based approaches that support coexistence. It also allows us to plan for a future in which climate change, population growth, and infrastructure development will continue reshaping the relationship between people, wildlife, and land.

A living example of Room to Roam

The Hwange-Matetsi-Zambezi landscape is an important part of IFAW's Room to Roam initiative -an ambitious vision to secure and reconnect landscapes across East and southern Africa for elephants and other wildlife.

Hwange does not exist in isolation-it forms part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, where wildlife moves across vast landscapes and national borders. Matetsi provides a critical connection between Hwange, the Zambezi River, and neighbouring ecosystems, including routes used by elephants moving towards Botswana.

The IFAW-ZimParks partnership responds to the needs of wildlife and communities together: protecting habitats, strengthening management, using science to understand movement, and investing in the people who share the landscape.