Mother Elephant Dies after being shot by unknown shooter. Orphaned baby elephant rejoins herd.

On July 7th, staff members from our partners at Zikomo Safari were going to gather firewood in the GMA (Game Management Area) and spotted a wounded Mother Elephant and reported it to the Ranger Teams at Miliyote Gate. The Elephant was wounded in the right leg from a large caliber rifle about 10 days prior.

A team was put together with several other agencies, including Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation (Nsefu.org), Conservation South Luangwa (CSL), Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and Zikomo Safari to try and save the elephant, but unfortunately, the Elephant died of its wounds. The team is now in search of who could have done this.

The Mother Elephant had a young calf which is estimated to be 8-10 months old, who stayed by her side after she died. The baby even put a defense of it's mother when the Nsefu.org team tried to approach to ascertain the situation. Eventually the calf joined the herd, protected my the matriarch of the herd. Nsefu.org will try to keep track of the calf, since it was still nursing, to make sure it's on a path to survival.

By law the DNPW had to oversee the removal of the elephants tusks, to keep them out of the ivory market. They will eventually be taken to DNPW for safe keeping until it can be properly disposed of.

Nsefu Wildlife Conservation Foundation is working hard to protect the wildlife in Africa, but we need your help. You're donations help us prevent tragic situations like this and work towards a balance between people and wildlife.

Nsefu.org Team joins local schools for Eco Game Drive.

The Nsefu team had a wonderful time with school children in the park. This was our second game drive with the kids. There are from three schools in the area, Nsefu Primary, Kawaza Primary and Chitunda Community School. And there were a total of 15 children on the drive.

Visiting the new Conservation Club at Chulu School

The Nsefu Team visited the Chulu School to witness the formation of the Chulu School’s Conservation Club. Chulu in the local language means Ant Hill. The students are standing on the Ant Hill that the school was named after.

Nsefu.org's Sewing Program is making a difference in the Mfuwe community.

By empowering local women, we’re working towards self-sustainability.

Nsefu.org’s Sewing Program is beginning to have a real impact on the local Mfuwe Community in Zambia. Local women are now producing products for sale and are on the road to becoming independent, rely less on donations, and are better able to support their families. This creates an environment where poaching will no longer be a necessity for survival.

In the video below, the Nsefu.org Sewing Team was visiting the Baobab Craftshop which is sponsored by Jen and Mike from Marula Lodge.

Your donations helped to get this program off the ground and with your continued support, we hope this grow in to a self-sustaining enterprise.

Zimbabwe May Withdraw From Endangered-Species Deal to Sell $300 Million of Ivory

By Ray Ndlovu

June 10, 2019, 10:56 AM PDT

A Zimbabwe National Parks game ranger holds an elephant ivory tusk in the country's ivory vault in Harare, on June 2, 2016.

Zimbabwe may consider withdrawing from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species because the organization won’t allow it to sell its ivory stockpile.

The southern African nation with the world second-largest population of elephants has a stockpile of tusks worth an estimated $300 million and needs the revenue, Fulton Mangwanya, director-general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, told lawmakers in the capital, Harare on Monday.

While CITES has banned international ivory sales to curb poaching, frustration is growing over the fact that “other countries are prescribing how we should handle our animals,” Mangwanya told a parliamentary committee on environment and tourism. Withdrawing from CITES would have the support of neighbors Botswana, Zambia and Namibia, which all have large elephant populations of their own, he said.

In recent years, Zimbabwe has raised money for conservation by selling elephants to China. The size of the population, estimated at 84,000, is twice what can be supported by available food and land, according to the government. Botswana last month lifted a hunting ban on wildlife because it says it has too many elephants, which destroy crops and sometimes kill people.

The last once-off commercial sale of stockpiles of elephant ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe that CITES allowed was completed in 2009. Most of the tusks went to China and Japan.

“Countries like Japan are supporting us, China is dilly-dallying, I’m not quite sure why, but they are the ones that want our ivory,” Mangwanya said.