{"id":6437,"date":"2019-11-07T10:31:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T07:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6437"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","slug":"zambian-conservationist-living-in-fear-over-antelope-relocation-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/07\/zambian-conservationist-living-in-fear-over-antelope-relocation-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambian Conservationist Living In Fear Over Antelope Relocation Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By <\/strong>Kennedy Gondwe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conservationist and a\njournalist in Zambia say they are living in fear after they exposed that 80\nBlack Lechwe have “gone missing” in a protected area in the north of\nthe country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservationist Nsama\nMusonda-Learns blew the whistle last month on the relocation of the antelope\nspecies native to the south central region of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story has been keen\nkeenly covered by Logic Lukwanda of privately owned Radio Phoenix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Learns says the Black\nLechwe were moved from their natural habitat in Bangweulu Wetlands without\nconsulting the community as required by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the government has\ndenied any wrongdoing, saying the animals were moved to two privately owned\nranches after a capture permit was issued in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the Minister of\nTourism Ronald Chitotela has accused Ms Learns of being sponsored by people\nwanting to dent the image of President Edgar Lungu and ordered police to\ninvestigate her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I heard that 80\nBlack Lechwe had been captured from the Bangweulu Wetlands and translocated to\nprivate ranches, I was deeply concerned about their survival because they are a\nrare species endemic to the Bangweulu wetlands and listed under the\nInternational Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as vulnerable,\u201d Ms\nLearns told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said according to\nresearch conducted on the semi aquatic species, they can be easily harmed by\nchange of habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSurprisingly, despite my\nappeal being based on the work I do, I have received responses that suggest I\nam being paid by the opposition to destroy the strongmen in the ruling party\nwhich has been followed by death threats from unknown people\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have also been called\nin by the police for questioning on the orders of the minister and now my phone\nhas been hacked and all audio messages and videos and statements I wrote are\nmissing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Learns, who has since\nwritten to human rights watchdog Amnesty International, wants her rights as a\nwhistleblower to be protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalist Logic Lukwanda\ntold the BBC that he was summoned and subsequently appeared at a police station\non Tuesday to record a statement about his knowledge of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Lukwanda said he was\naccompanied to the police station by his supervisor, lawyer and representative\nfrom the media watchdog, Media Institute of Southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a remote fear in me. I feel I have to check my shoulders all the time,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read original story<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kennedy Gondwe A conservationist and a journalist in Zambia say they are living in fear after they exposed that 80 Black Lechwe have “gone missing” in a protected area…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}