Sekute Trust: Change and Power from the Grass Roots

Driving out to the Sekute, AWF Regional Enterprise Manager Wilfred and I traveled to their Head office in order to talk with members from the Trust. The idea of creating Trusts in key areas such as Sekute, was thought up and implemented by AWF as a way to have elected members represent the community in order to address issues such as conservation and community development from the grass roots level, and democratically govern natural resources.  Conservation has become critical in these specific areas, and with the creation of the Trust, the local people now own the land by having become an enterprise, and are positioned to participate in business partnerships related to sustainable natural resources management.   The Trust allows the community to benefit from their natural resources, with all funds going straight back into the community, allowing community members to then reinvest in conservation and enterprise development.  The Sekute community is extremely poor and impoverished, and in their survival they have poached or chased off most all of the game in the area.  Relying heavily on the Zambezi River like the Inyambo community, stocks are being overfished leading to loss of biodiversity and great disturbances within the ecosystem as they use mosquito nets for fishing, leading to rapidly declining fish populations and people struggling as they come up with less food.

[caption id="attachment_1910" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Members of the Trust and AWF Regional Enterprise Manager Wilfred stand in front of the new office for the Sekute Community Development Trust."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1913" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sekute Trust member Edwin Sikute, Board Secretary"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1914" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Fish caught from the Zambezi River."][/caption]

The Trust has thus been formed to initiate and facilitate change for the Sekute area, speaking from the people and bringing changes for the people, focusing mainly on land conservation and protection of natural resources.  AWF has worked with the community to construct a school, and is in the midst of building a lodge.  The Trust has also opened two corridors and a dispersal area for wildlife, and already they are seeing improvements.  Kudu and other wildlife are coming back into and repopulating the area, and there is talk of bringing in even more wildlife.

I traveled with the Trust and a Government Fisheries officer to attend a meeting that brought over 100 people together in order to address issues of conservation and fisheries.  The first of its kind, the meeting marked the beginning of an ongoing process in addressing issues within the community and working towards conservation and preservation of land and animals on the ground, as well as in the Zambezi River.  We sat in a large circle beneath the shade of Mopane trees for hours, with the Trust and a representative from the Fisheries Department addressing the general audience, and answering questions from the community.  The Trust supported the representative from the Fisheries Department as he talked of new legislation and how he would be enforcing the laws on fisheries in order to help conserve the fish stocks.

[caption id="attachment_1915" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A community member poses a question to the Fisheries Officer during a meeting on conservation and resource management."][/caption]

The Trust talked about establishing breading zones in the area, to help improve fish stocks, and about what conservation that is already underway for land based resource management. Many questions were brought up and discussed, but it was clear that there are no easy answers. At the end of the meeting, the people wanted to hear from the “mukuwa” (white person), and as I went into the middle of the circle and spoke as a translator repeated my words in the local language, I encouraged them that they are bringing about change now and what an honor it was for me to be a part of it. I explained that through documenting the meeting, I was helping to link them to the rest of the world, and that by working together these issues may be resolved for the betterment of the community, wildlife, and natural habitats.

[caption id="attachment_1916" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A representative from the Fisheries Department addresses members of the Sekute Conservation Area during the first meeting of its kind addressing issues of Conservation and natural resource management. "][/caption]