For communities living within the game management areas along the boundary of the South Luangwa National Park, living with wildlife has unique challenges. Since 2007, CSL has worked closely with Community Resource Boards (CRBs), traditional community leadership, and local partners to implement human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies, alternative livelihood initiatives as well as broader community outreach and community-driven conservation programmes. These activities reach an estimated population of 100,000 people across seven rural chiefdoms bordering the South Luangwa National Park.
In 2021, CSL officially launched the CSL Community department, formally acknowledging the growing scale and vital importance of human-wildlife coexistence work as part of CSL’s overall mission to conserve the wildlife and habitats of the South Luangwa Valley. CSL believes wholeheartedly in the importance of community participation, collaboration and consultation, and by explicitly differentiating CSL’s community work, CSL aims to further build the breadth and depth of community relations in order to increase CSL’s impact on people and wildlife across the region.