Never in my entire life have I ever felt a strong compulsive urge to instantly call on phone the Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources than I wanted to do on the day of 23rd July 2020 for an urgent SOS action. The nasty firsthand nature destruction experience I witnessed on the material day of illegal excessive cutting down of trees both in my Lochinvar camp site and nearby forest reserve almost sent me in a cardiac arrest. Just how does a fellow human being summon such courage to trespass into a protected campsite? Then dared me by cutting down all my most treasured evergreen trees that I have jealously guarded from destruction over many years for mere firewood? To sale and make money for heaven sake: oh no! For my avid blog followers and readers, this might sound like a boring repetition of my old tree conservation story. Please forgive me in this particular instance of dwelling too much on nature conservation. I am simply hurting from inside me as a result of events of 23rd July 2020. Narrating this story might provide me with the much needed healing I so desperately need and possibly receive a foreclosure on this sad episode of my life.
Coronavirus (COVID19) has seriously left an indelible trail of destruction on nature conservation in and around Lochinvar National Park known as a bird paradise of the world, located in rural Monze-west in Zambia. As a result of government restriction on unnecessary movement during COVID19 period, I decided not to open the Lochinvar camp site to the public until such a time when tourists would start visiting Lochinvar National Park again after COVID19 had ceased. I was therefore compelled to relieve most of my front line staff from reporting for work but operate from home to safeguard them from getting infected from Coronavirus. I then placed the campsite under care and maintenance under the supervision of a caretaker who lives nearby the property. For the past four months since March, I have been confined working online from the comfort of my home in the Kafue sub-region, some 300+ kms away from Lochinvar National Park, doing administrative and marketing work. I had so much trust and confidence in my campsite care taker as he is a close relative of mine. Unknown to me, my prolonged absence from the property provided him with the opportunity to connive and collude with local villagers to invade my protected forest camp site for cash! He offered illegal lucrative tree cutting concessions to the highest bidder for the life of my precious trees. Under the cover of darkness, illegal concession owners would jump into my protected forest campsite, target all the big trees and chop them down for firewood. Not one or two or three, but many big trees. But where the human conscious was when these people where doing this uncouth act beats my human imagination.
So on 21st July 2020, I decided to make an impromptu and unannounced visit to my Lochinvar campsite. Upon arrival, I ventured deeper into the campsite bushes. Lol and behold, I found nicely stack piles of firewood hidden under some tree shrubs. Upon further inspection around the campsite, I found many such stack piles of firewood littered all around. All my most treasured trees were gone and cut down into firewood. This was a shocking experience for me. In a total furry, I quickly dashed to the nearby home of my care taker to inquire from him what was going on. On confrontation, his reply was a mere none committal ’I do not know’ answer with a smile on his face!!! My body simply went numb at this cut answer and was at a great lose as what to do next. Was he challenging me for a fight or simply mocking me for being so foolishly in love with trees?
On the morning of 23rd July 2020, I heard a ko, ko, ko, ko sound coming from the deep inside of the campsite bushes. I quickly rushed to the scene in the direction of the noise, armed with all manner of missiles in my hands accompanied by my other campsite helper. I was ready for the mothers of all battles at any cost with the intruders. Nothing prepared me for the shocking experience of my life that awaited me next. Standing next to a chopped down tree was a frail looking dark woman dismembering branch by branch of the tree for firewood using a small sharp axe. Seeing me fiercely charging towards her with a whip in my hand, the woman made out a deafening scream in fear and scampered for safety. Unfortunately, she got entangled in some tree twigs and was rendered immobile. Seeing that the poor woman had wetted in her pants, I ended up whipping the very cut tree branches I was protecting. She confessed that she had solid and valid permission from my caretaker to cut down these trees in my campsite from my care taker. Without hesitation, I grabbed her small axe and ordered that she starts ferrying all the firewood she had cut down to our campsite store room. In then quickly rushed to summon my care taker for an explanation. Fortunately for the care taker, I did not find him when I was fuming with rage otherwise something bad could have happened to him. On my way back to the scene, the woman had quietly escaped unnoticed by my other camp helper in the surrounding bushes. After a while, an army of rough looking men numbering four in the company of the same woman arrived at the campsite looking menacingly threatening. Not knowing what to expect, I prepared for the worst case scenario and moved closer to the axe on the ground to use as a defensive tool in case I was attacked. Seeing that I was fuming with rage as I continued piling up the same firewood the woman had abandoned, their approach was polite and civil. We both reasoned that we should summon my care taker for an explanation. As lucky might have it, my care taker arrived on the scene almost immediately and vehemently denied ever allowing the woman to cut trees on my camp site but outside my campsite fence. After a heated exchange of words, my care taker finally conceded that indeed he gave the woman permission to cut down trees in my campsite. As for me, it really did not matter whether the cutting down of tree was done inside or outside my campsite. Trees are trees irrespective of location (period). I sincerely apologized to the woman and the man who introduced himself as the husband to the lady for the embarrassing episode and was pleased that my apology was accepted unconditionally. Turning to my caretaker (and my own relative for that matter!!), he simply said he will ensure that this does not happen again and walked away from me. His unapologetic and unrepentant behavior is what is causing me much pain.
In the evening of the same day, some villager informers told me of the existence of a well organized syndicate of villagers who were killing over 10 precious birds per night included UN red listed endangered Wattled Crane. This information was equally very devastating for me. I reported the matter to the most senior government official of the nearby rural local district. The response was we will look into the matter and make a follow up!
Had it not been for you Coronavirus, our tourism business would be fully operational by now, earning money. From our earnings, I could channel part of it to sponsor and hire some village green scorpions to safe guard trees and birds in and around Lochinvar National Park. As the situation stands now, it is stalemate! You Coronavirus, see the trail of destruction you have left behind to compromise nature conservation in Africa and beyond.