Training Videos for Simalaha Community Conservancy

The age-old adage of “give a person a fish, and they can eat for a day; teach a person to fish, and they eat for a lifetime” was taken a step further with a recent project when HDS Academy employees had the opportunity to lend their expertise to the Peace Parks Foundation's Simalaha Conservation Agriculture Project.

The goal of the project was to provide conservation agriculture training to the people in the Simalaha region of western Zambia. Conservation farming techniques increase yields using less labor and materials on less land while reducing deforestation. Ultimately, these techniques will help people move from subsistence to sustainable farming.

But how do you spread the word and ensure that training is delivered correctly across the region? Hitachi Data Systems and Xcelus, with generous support from the Kadans Foundation, produced training videos about conservation farming. These videos were distributed on Samsung tablets that will be used by lead farmers to train people in Simalaha.

Jay Erikson, HDS Academy Manager of Learning and Performance Consulting, describes the project in this video on corporate social responsibility.  

Peace Parks Foundation

Peace Parks Foundation facilitates the establishment of trans-frontier conservation areas (peace parks)* and develops human resources, thereby supporting sustainable economic development, the conservation of biodiversity and regional peace and stability.

*The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement of 1999 defines a trans-frontier conservation area (TFCA) as "the area or component of a large ecological region that straddles the boundaries of two or more countries, encompassing one or more protected areas as well as multiple resource use areas." The Protocol commits the SADC Member States to promote the conservation of shared wildlife resources through the establishment of trans-frontier conservation areas.

Check out their website for more information and photos of this project.