Blog Mar Acronyms | zoologist

Blog 40 – Mar '17 – The Land of Acronyms

I thought it was about time that I got around to letting everyone know about my new role as Assistant Project Manager (APM) for the Kafue Conservation Project (KCP), which sits within the Game Rangers International (GRI) organisation. The organisation has been set up in order to support the Department of National Park and Wildlife (DNPW) with their law-enforcement (LE) activities. I have been here over three months and I am just starting to get used to the number of the acronyms this place has. But, tomorrow, I am sure to find a new one that I have to ask about, or google (to avoid shame at not yet knowing what it stands for). I took a while to pluck up the courage to find out what TBZ stood for (which, given the context of its mentions, seemed to be a region’s name). For those of you that are interested, it stands for the Tobacco Board of Zambia which is in a particular area near the park. The whole area is referred to as TBZ. And that is what google told me, but I didn’t believe that people were going to a Tobacco Board for so many reasons. So, I had to ask, only to find out that is what it stands for. Lesson: trust google. Interestingly enough, I have spent the better part of my 28 years of existence being told by various teachers, lecturers and supervisors the exact opposite of this, so I guess it will take a while for this particular lesson to sync in.

The centre of the land of acronyms, our base at Hook Bridge in Kafue National Park -my current office is in the middle tent

But beyond this job being all about learning (i.e. ‘trust google’) it is largely about admin and planning. As the APM for a project that directly employees 35 staff, and supports almost 125 rangers there is a lot of paperwork. We have a huge monthly budget which is thanks to the sponsors that fund us (we have over 150 mouths to feed, bodies to accommodate and staff to equip). Of these sponsors, we have a number of long-term partnerships including the David Shepard Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Born Free Foundation as well as a lot of large donors that have come on board more recently such as the African Wildlife Foundation and the Olsen Animal Trust (to name a few of the very many donors). Those are just some of our donors, we also have more foundations, businesses (including some very kind nearby lodges) and individuals that support us through both monetary and in-kind support.

KCP is pretty massive project, and within the Project we have seven work streams (all with wonderful three, and one four, letter acronyms of course). The Project Management Unit (PMU) oversees the other six work streams which are:

SAPU - the Special Anti-Poaching Unit, designed for rapid, strike-force response to wildlife crime, anywhere in the country. These guys are on the frontline fighting the poaching crisis (which I will update everyone on in a later blog). They respond all over the country when there are no local teams to respond, or the local teams need more ‘muscle’ – think of them as SWAT for wildlife (no Samuel L Jackson or Colin Farrell in this S.W.A.T. though)

The SAPU office tent – including operational charts, maps and a radio base station and of course, the Zambian flag

APUs - the Anti-Poaching Units based in the Park’s hotspot areas to deter and detect poaching. These guys are on the frontline of the poaching crisis as well. Many of the team members come from the communities in which they work adjacent to, so they have solid knowledge of the area and the communities surrounding it

ASU - the Aerial Support Unit which should quite literally take-off next month to start surveillance activities and ad-hoc research activities – I can’t wait to join them on a patrol which I will do to collect useful Park information such as the location of water sources and to hopefully commence some research programs (and selfishly I just want to see the park from the air, an adventure I never had in Etosha!). Kafue National Park is nowhere near as well charted or understood as Etosha, so the plane will be a vital tool in our (and our research partners’) endeavour to collect more information on Kafue

FFU – the Fire-Fighting Unit which is the only fire team in the whole area (a 22,400km2 park!). This unit is a hugely necessary component of KCP (despite seeming less law enforcement-focused than other units) because, historically Kafue does not burn often or extensively. But, with illegally lit fires, both accidental and otherwise, up to 80% of the park burns annually

TSU – the Training Support Unit which has been set up to support the nearby Chunga Training School. The school trains rangers on the front line of the war on poaching. The Unit has been designed to ensure the school becomes a professional, full-time institution making sure rangers across the country are well equipped for their jobs

WMT – the Workshops and Maintenance Team supports all of our other activities through repairing roads, building office and accommodation structures and fixing vehicles (their magic is currently turning 3 decomposing trucks into 1 new, functional truck).

I’m pretty proud to be working for an organisation like this. After all, KCP supported rangers have apprehended over 600 poachers, seized 342 illegal firearms, removed 1206 snares, seized 14,521 kg of bush meat and recovered 139 kg of ivory since 2013! But to continue, our funding base not only needs to remain stable, but also needs to grow so that we can support additional APU and SAPU teams to cover this great area, which exceeds 66,0000km2 with game management areas included. Which is where I come in, spending much of my time applying for grants, creating technical and financial reports for the donors, and generally liaising with the donors so that they are kept up to date on our progress and ongoing challenges.

This is where the magic happens – and with a fleet of second-hand vehicles and rough, flooded roads the WMT needs a lot of magic to keep us moving