In this final episode of the series, presenter Gordon Buchanan heads home to Scotland to see the work that the Beaver Trust is leading to “regenerate the beaver species to regenerate the landscape”. The Beaver Trust is a charity working to restore animals to habitats where they thrived in the past, building climate resilient landscapes across the UK and we speak to Elliot McCandless from the charity. We also chat to Tom, a fifth-generation farmer on the land but with a very different role to...

In this episode, we travel to Zambia to investigate a different – and lesser known – wildlife conflict to the ones already explored in the series.   The hippo affects many lives, often tragically, and we meet local people with their own stories to tell; both of hippo attacks and injuries caused by elephants in the country.   The Luangwa Valley sees dramatic seasonal variations and with a dynamic river system, fertile soil and lush vegetation, it’s the perfect home for a wide variety of...

Kasungu National Park forms part of the trans-frontier conservation area between Malawi and Zambia. The area used to have a thriving wildlife population but due to poaching, it was left depleted with the resident elephant population coming close to extinction. A translocation plan, put in place by the Malawian government, IFAW and African Parks, has returned the elephants to the park. Despite a positive long-term vision, the short-term effects have resulted in a number of human deaths, animal...

In this episode, we meet the Chizvirizvi community in Zimbabwe – a latecomer to the CAMPFIRE programme, compared to the Mahenye featured in episode 5. Chizvirizvi is somewhat different as it’s not operated by the Rural District Council. Instead, authority for the utilisation and management of wildlife has been conferred to the community or collective resettlement scheme plot holders. And with the authority only designated in 2003, their CAMPFIRE programme is relatively in its infancy, with...

In this episode, we visit the Mahenye community and Jamanda Conservancy in Zimbabwe where the hope is that tourism revenue will aid those living alongside dangerous, and sometimes life-threatening, wildlife. The Jamanda Conservancy is the location for the first Communal Area Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) and today boasts an upmarket tourist lodge called Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge. This has resulted in an increase in revenue for the community and employs many of their...

In this episode, we travel to Botswana to discover how innovative methods, and the role of organisations, are aiding the coexistence of people and wildlife. We visit the Chobe enclave, where despite a thriving tourism economy, the wildlife from the nearby National Park can cause life-changing and sometimes devastating challenges to local residents.   Mr Mwezi is a community leader, a chief and a cattle rancher. He describes the challenges he faces from raising his herd in an area prone to...

In this episode, we remain in Namibia to look at the human wildlife conflict that takes place in, and around, conservancies and discover how, despite some horrific stories, governments and communities can come together to create an effective co-existence between humans and wildlife.   We visit the Nakabolelwa Conservancy in the Zambezi region to hear how it can be flooding, rather than drought, that affects farmers – but also how elephants and buffalos not only damage the crops that villagers...

In this second episode, we travel to Namibia and visit the #Gaingu conservancy to explore human wildlife conflict and effective coexistence and mitigation methods.   The landscape around the conservancy is flat and arid, in the shadow of the Spitzkoppe mountain with the main wildlife resources being kudu, gemsbok, springbok and leopard. But these species can cause great problems and hardship for local people.   In 2020, three herders from the conservancy were attacked by a leopard after...

In this second series of Beneath The Baobab, we visit communities living alongside African wildlife – and explore the daily challenges of coexistence with them.   In this episode, we visit the western border of Kruger National Park in South Africa where the species causing the most conflict are buffalo, lion, elephant, hippo and crocodile.   South African National Parks (SANParks) offers a compensation scheme for the loss of livestock as a result of lions, spotted hyena, cheetah, and wild dog...

Beneath The Baobab - the communities and conservation podcast from Jamma International - returns with a new series on Thursday 7th March. Presented once again by documentary maker, Gordon Buchanan, we get even closer to the coexistence challenge and explore the issues by visiting communities who live alongside African wildlife; taking in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. Click follow on your podcast app to make sure you don’t miss an episode - and find out more...

"We are all dependent upon the air that we breathe, the water we drink, the soils that we grow our food on. To mismanage them and treat them badly as we have done for centuries: we can't go on that way." In a special final episode for the series, Gordon meets up with Mike Daniels of the John Muir Trust in Scotland. They take a walk through the beautiful landscape of East Schiehallion in Perthshire, where the Trust has recently completed a million pound investment into restoring a footpath and...

Dr Rodgers Lubilo grew up in a village next to South Luangwa National Park, Zambia where wildlife, human life and livelihoods have always coexisted. It was in the mid-90s when Rodgers became interested in local CBNRM initiatives. He then led a movement that convinced his family and village leaders to follow in experimental and innovative sustainable use programmes. As a pioneer of CBNRM in Zambia, Rodgers has been a driver of innovative change that has swept across conservation projects and...

From government office to grass-roots campaigning, Malidadi Langa has long been a leading force in Malawian wildlife policy.  In this episode he chats with Gordon about how he’s used his experience in economics to become an international voice in rural development and decentralisation. They discuss the problematic impact of “fortress” conservation policies that historically isolated communities from their traditional resources. And Malidadi explains the journey of the community development...

This time, Gordon chats with scientist, conservationist and broadcaster Professor Adam Hart about how we can move international public understanding of sustainable use forwards. Adam shares his story, from young entomologist to sustainable use convert and co-director of a successful volunteer programme in South Africa. He also discusses the wider consideration of habitat when working to conserve wildlife whilst benefitting from its resources. Adam has developed a rhino-thick skin when taking...

In this episode of Beneath the Baobab, Gordon meets pioneering Zimbabwean conservationist Dr Clive Stockil. Since childhood, Clive has been living with and serving the same community. It’s his life’s work to continue forging and building coexistence benefits through sustainable conservation projects. The 1990s saw him founding the Savé Valley Conservancy, one of the largest private game reserves in Africa. This comprises 750,000 acres of biodiversity in the Southeastern Iowveld of...

Gordon Buchanan meets two of the pioneers of CBNRM or Community based Natural Resources Management in this episode of Beneath the Baobab. Dr Brian Child and Dr Shylock Muyengwa have teamed up from their homes on other sides of the world for years, conducting fieldwork and research with communities to help develop increasingly sophisticated models and practises for wildlife conservation with people at their heart. Brian’s childhood in Zimbabwe inspired a career defending the rights and...

For too long a crucial voice has been missing from the international conversation around how to face the biodiversity crisis: the communities and indigenous peoples who live together with wildlife are central to the approaches and success of conservation going forwards. This time Gordon Buchanan’s talking with Lesle Jansen to discuss how resource rights are also human rights. Lesle’s background working with prison inmates in South Africa post-apartheid sparked a career in international law...

How can wildlife be safeguarded and valued whilst the dignity and rights of people are respected?   Shane Mahoney @cv_insights is an internationally recognised wildlife expert and conservation advocate – and is the Founder and President of Canadian enterprise Conservation Visions. Born and raised in Newfoundland, Shane has a unique insight into the inter-relationship of wildlife, individuals, communities and environments. In this episode he shares with Gordon his thoughts on historical...

In this episode of Beneath the Baobab, Gordon Buchanan takes a look at the human dimensions of conservation.   Dr Dilys Roe @dilysroe and Sam Shaba share examples of models for supporting livelihoods and wildlife to thrive in shared spaces, from ecotourism and carbon credit schemes to incentivisation of the sustainable use of natural resources.  Dilys is Chair of the Sustainable Use and Livelihoods (SULi) specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This...

Facing up to the threats of biodiversity loss and the climate crisis needs the participation of communities whose culture and livelihoods have been connected with wildlife for generations.  Dr Moreangels Mbizah @MoreangelsM has dedicated her life to protecting the livelihoods of rural African communities in human-wildlife conflict and is world-renowned for her work with lions and large carnivores. In this episode she talks with Gordon about her life’s work and current focus as Director...

In this episode, Professor Amy Dickman @AmyDickman4 chats with Gordon Buchanan about the complexities of developing community-led conservation and some common misconceptions that can trip up wildlife-lovers around the world. Amy’s the join CEO of Lion Landscapes and one of the co-founders of the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance. Her dedicated career and wealth of on the ground experience gives her a unique insight into developing biodiversity solutions where dangerous wildlife and people...

How would you grow food with an elephant in your backyard? Would you send your kids to school with lions on the roam? These are the kinds of real decisions faced by families living with wildlife around the world. Fortunately, innovative work is taking place in such communities to build safe and sustainable livelihoods and economies whilst cherishing and protecting local wildlife. In the first episode of Beneath the Baobab, Gordon Buchanan chats with Maxi Pia Louis @maxipialouis1, Director of...

Right now, up to 1 eighth of the world’s species are at risk of extinction and its down to us to act now or lose them forever. In Beneath the Baobab from Jamma International, wildlife filmmaker Gordon Buchanan hosts cutting-edge conversations about conservation work led by communities around the world. Gordon hears from people living and working alongside wildlife; from elephants to lions, rhinos, wild dogs and endangered plants. [KM1] In each  episode Gordon will hear from a unique project...

In Beneath the Baobab a podcast from Jamma International, wildlife filmmaker Gordon Buchanan chats with leading conservationists and communities who are successfully working and living hand-in-hand with wildlife. Listen to this clip from our first episode. In the first episode Gordon hears from Maxi Pia Louis @maxipialouis1, Director of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) to find out what Community Based Natural Resource Management is. Namibian-born Maxi’s passion...