Tech and Community Patrols Cut Human–Wildlife Conflict Near Hwange National Park

Tech and Community Patrols Cut Human–Wildlife Conflict Near Hwange National Park

Each morning in the sun-scorched lands beside Zimbabwe's largest wildlife reserve, 49-year-old Takesure Moyo cycles through his village on a mission: to help his neighbours live alongside elephants and predators that roam the area. Moyo is one of several local residents trained as community monitors through a joint initiative by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zimparks).

Armed with a mobile phone and the EarthRanger app, he records sightings, tracks spoor and logs incidents. Those community reports are combined with satellite telemetry from GPS collars fitted to 16 elephants and fed into a single system that enables near real-time monitoring, alerts and faster operational responses to reduce dangerous encounters.

"We have always lived with wild animals around us, but our responses to human-wildlife conflict were rather individual and uncoordinated,"

— Takesure Moyo, community monitor (translated from Ndebele)

Zimparks reports that wild animals have killed about 300 people in Zimbabwe over the past five years, and nearly 70% of reported incidents occur in communities bordering national parks such as Hwange. Crop damage and livestock losses are common, especially during the dry and cropping seasons when elephants visit communal water sources and fields.

Moyo — who lost six cattle to lions a few years ago — now patrols daily on a bicycle provided by IFAW, sending targeted updates about so-called "problem animals" such as elephants and lions. His local observations complement telemetry from collared elephants to give rangers a clearer operational picture and enable timely community warnings.

At a monitoring centre, technical officer Simbarashe Mupanhwa pointed to colour-coded tracks on a screen that follow Samson, a seven-year-old bull elephant reintroduced after being abandoned at birth. "Other than helping monitor the elephants' movements, the application is also able to track rangers and vehicles, ensuring that if there are any incidents of poaching, reaction is as swift as possible," Mupanhwa said.

IFAW conservation senior director Phillip Kuvawoga said satellite telemetry "offers critical spatial insights into habitat use, movement patterns, and the identification of frequently utilised areas, including ecological corridors and dispersal zones." The EarthRanger platform — used in around 80 countries — acts as a live early-warning system, giving communities time to protect people, livestock and property.

The initiative sits amid a wider debate over Zimbabwe's elephant population. A 2022 aerial survey under the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area estimated nearly 100,000 savannah elephants in Zimbabwe, the world's second-largest population after Botswana. The government has argued the country cannot sustainably support such large numbers and has lobbied for lifting the global ban on the trade in tusks, saying ivory stockpiles could raise funds for ranger welfare and conservation. Zimparks supports regulated hunting as part of "consumptive tourism," while IFAW promotes non-lethal options like photographic safaris.

Despite those differing philosophies, community-based conservation has become common ground: combining local knowledge with technology to protect both people and wildlife. "It's not just about protecting animals," Moyo said. "It's about protecting our way of life, too."