Lack of Skills, Poor Education and Demographic Characteristics

Prior to undertaking COMACO, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) carried out extensive demographic surveys in the Luangwa Valley and found the following results. Average age of household heads, who were typically males with an average education of only grade 7, was 39 years. Mean family size was 5.5. While formal child education for reading and writing was limited to local community schools, early pregnancies prevented many young girls from attaining an education past primary school or early grades of basic schools. Demands on meeting family livelihood needs, such as weeding fields, also contributed to high levels of absenteeism from schools, in some cases as high as 80%. Curricula in schools were also constrained by required subjects that gave children and young adults limited exposure to life skills that might better prepare for their adult lives and emerging markets in relation to the natural resources their communities shared and depended on.

Few if any opportunities existed prior to COMACO that offered reliable access to practical trade or farming skills to either adults or young adults. Most training of applied skills were passed on from father to son or mother to daughter. In many of these cases, for instance, fathers whose own limited set of skills might have included fishing or illegal hunting would have passed these skills on to their sons, thus perpetuating land use practices detrimental to wildlife or the sustained management of natural resources.

With the introduction of out-grower schemes, companies seeking to purchase cotton or tobacco provided extension workers who often resided in the communities and taught farmers how to grow these crops. This approach proved extremely effective in modifying farming interests and communities responded positively to these extension services by supporting the crops promoted by these companies.

Despite the economic growth of tourism in Luangwa Valley, formal avenues for encouraging local residents to build a career in tourism were limited to the good will of individual lodge or safari operators to help local residents learn these skills. This often resulted in companies recruiting skilled people from outside Luangwa Valley and relegating more menial work to local residents. GO TO TOP