Posted on August, 02 2024

Nine-year-old Sanchle Brice Moyo is hitching a cart with his two donkeys. He throws a couple of big buckets into the back of the cart before he takes off. Dust flies up from the dry land as he speeds away.

The drought in Zimbabwe is severe and is heavily affecting people and wildlife. Normally, it’s supposed to rain at this time of year, but the crop fields are all dried out and empty.

Nothing has been able to grow due to the months-long period with no rain, and the government has declared a "state of disaster".

Eighty percent of the country has received below-normal rainfall due to the El Niño-induced drought.



After a rough ride, Moyo jumps off. He has reached the main borehole - the borehole that 45 households in the area depend on for their water supply, for themselves and for their animals.

We are in a small village outside the town of Hwange in the KAZA region (Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area) in western Zimbabwe. KAZA is the one of the largest nature and landscape conservation areas in the world, stretching over five countries in southern Africa.

Related stories: 
The Zambian community fighting fire with fire
From poacher to conservationist

Next to the village, where about 5,000 people live, is Hwange National Park, the largest national park in the country. The park is home to more than 45,000 elephants, one of the largest elephant populations in the world. Most of them roam around freely.

Here, threats and conflicts occur from different angles.

“There are threats against the forest, against the wildlife, and against the communities. We are dealing with a landscape with multiple players and a rich biological diversity,” says Tinaapi Hilary Madiri, Acting Conservation Manager and Wildlife Program Manager, WWF Zimbabwe.

“Here we also have a mosaic of protected areas. That makes both a physical and a systemic connection between humans and wildlife.”

One side of a road can be a protected area for wildlife, while the other side is a human settlement, with nothing more than a dirt road in between.

A couple of elephants are crossing the road while Sanchle Brice Moyo is getting water from the borehole. He is jumping up and down to pump the water.

At the same time, his grandparents, Patson and Melody Moyo, are out collecting honey from some of their beehives in the nearby forest. They wear white protective suits that shine in the bright sun. Bees are flying all around as they open one of the hives.

Beekeeping, an alternative livelihood component that WWF’s Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Africa programme is promoting and supporting in the area, has multiple uses.

First, it’s an alternative source of income, especially during droughts when the crops don’t yield anything. But the beehives also function as a protective barrier against elephants.



“When an elephant gets into your fields, you are done,” says Patson Moyo, as he points out in the direction from where the elephants usually come.

The elephants usually come to raid crops and are therefore a major problem for the farmers. But during the drier seasons, they also come inside the communities to search for water when they can’t find any in their natural water sources. It’s not just a threat against their livelihoods, but also against their lives.

Moyo explains how they set up the beehives to create a barrier around their lands. Elephants, despite their massive size, are afraid of bees due to the pain caused by multiple stings, particularly on sensitive areas like their ears, eyes, and trunk.

“Elephants don’t want to come near bees,” he says.

Honey collecting is not new in this area, but traditionally, people used to collect wild honey from the forest. To do that, they would usually burn down the trees to reach the honey and use the smoke to scare the bees away. This caused significant problems in the forest with wildfires. 

“For beekeeping, you don’t have any predators. If you can get 20 beehives you are done. Even 10 is good money,” says Moyo. He adds that in a good year, they will get three harvests of honey. From every hive, they can get six bottles of honey.



A while later, Sanchle, Patson, and Melody are back home. While Sanchle is taking care of the donkeys and leading them back to their paddock, which is surrounded by sticks and branches with long thorns, Patson is carrying the buckets of water off the cart.

Next to the paddock, Melody is coming out of her small house, made of orange-brown mud, with some bottles in her hands. It’s honey she has just sold.

The high biodiversity in the region is very important in different aspects. It’s a key driver for economic activities that support conservation, such as tourism.

“It’s also very important for the livelihoods of the communities here, for energy, food, and shelter,” says Madiri.

In KAZA, WWF is trying to integrate nature and the people with a multidisciplinary approach. To protect nature and help the local community at the same time. 



“People are key in light of the marginalization that they suffer and their poverty level, which directly drives their dependence on natural resources. So, addressing social issues becomes essential for biodiversity conservation,” says Madiri. “With communities, you can also promote assisted natural regeneration if the community understands conservation better.”

Sanchle Brice Moyo is walking fast on the road. He is swinging a bag with bread between his hands. He got the money from his grandmother after she sold the honey. The honey is one of their main sources of income now, during the drought. 

“Biodiversity is the key. But at the rate it’s exploited, it just must be managed to ensure we don’t deplete the biodiversity,” says Madiri.

In Zimbabwe, WWF’s FLR in Africa programme has committed to bringing under restoration 500,000 hectares of land by 2027, contributing to the national restoration target.

“Conservation is not purely a science-number issue. It's more complex. People have their expectations and their own experiences living next to wildlife," Madiri says. "That’s why it’s important to build a narrative where the people themselves are the key drivers of land use and land cover change."

Discover more:
Forests at WWF
Fire and forests
The importance of forests