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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A LOCAL arts organisation with interests across the Sadc region is using theatre to capacitate local communities living in wildlife-infested areas to fight poaching and human-wildlife conflict.

Binga, Hwange, Lupane and Tsholotsho districts face perennial human-wildlife conflict and rampant poaching.

Savanna Trust, which is into theatre production, training and performance for social development in marginalised areas especially in rural areas as well as high-density suburbs in urban areas, has rolled out training programmes for Shangano Arts in Hwange and Ntembawuziyo in Binga.

The project is being implemented in partnership with Twist Theatre Development from Durban, South Africa supported by USAID.

Savanna Trust director Daniel Maposa said the idea is to use art to educate communities not to engage in or be influenced to engage in poaching.

He said Savanna Trust seeks to ensure that communities around the Kaza-Transfrontier Conservation Area in which Binga and Hwange fall, understand conservation and contribute to the reduction of wildlife crimes.

“We are training and helping two theatre groups from Hwange and Binga using theatre to raise awareness and dialogue on wildlife crimes in their communities. In the past two weeks, we have been seeking to develop the capabilities of the two theatre groups Shangano Arts and Ntembawuziyo in using theatre as a forum for dialogue, develop acting and playmaking skills of the theatre groups as well as to improve their understanding of what constitute wildlife crimes,” Maposa said.

He said the project came after realising that in most cases, poachers use vulnerable communities, especially young people to engage in poaching.

“Unfortunately in most cases, it is the young people who are arrested or killed yet they receive breadcrumbs from the proceeds of poaching. In the process individuals, communities and the nation lose from these criminal activities.

“It is, therefore, the project’s goal to ensure that theatre contributes to awareness-raising and dialogue that results in communities surrounding Hwange and Binga being aware of these issues and reduce their participation in wildlife crimes.”

While the project is focused on Binga and Hwange, Savanna Trust has worked with communities in Goromonzi, Gwanda, Harare, Hurungwe, Hwedza, Kadoma, Karoi, Kadoma and Lalapansi.

The organisation also runs the Sadc Theatre Camp, training and arts management training programme for young people from the region. — @ncubeleon.