In the southern province of Zambia, the people of Haanamoonga village together with their village Headman is working hard to regenerate the river catchment and the landscape they depend on. Haanamoonga is one of 117 villages under Chief Chona, located in the eastern part of Monze district. The area has an estimated population of 70,000 people, who are mostly Tonga people, the first Bantu group that settled in Zambia. These people are known to be hard-working farmers and have a strong culture and connection to the land. The area that the Haanamoonga community wants to regenerate is about 300 hectares in size and lies on a plateau bordered by the Zambezi escarpment and Lufuwe river catchment. The community depends on the Kapande river catchment for their livelihood. The area is bounded by the Magoye River and is on a plateau on the edge of the Zambezi valley.

Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture (ReSCOPE) is a regional organisation that works closely with SCOPE Zambia to support this community initiative. A number of other local institutions such as the traditional leadership, local government, agricultural extension services, schools, radio stations, a farmer training centre as well as other community based organisations support the initiative.

Why regenerate the Haanamoonga landscape?

Two of the village Headmen have been introduced to permaculture. They were so impressed with it that they asked for support to transform their environment in a similar way.

The community feels that regeneration is urgent as there are high levels of food and nutritional insecurity with child stunting standing at over 45%.

Since the area is drought-prone and has been extensively deforested, the community experiences a shortage and scarcity of water as well as pollution of their water sources. Cultivation on stream banks is also having an impact on communal water sources. Soil erosion silts up the river and seasonal steams.

The expansion of cultivated areas into land that has traditionally been used for pasture is creating a conflict of interest. The community is in a drought prone area and the land has been degraded through poor land husbandry practices that has led to erosion and the killing of the soil. These challenges are common across Zambia and it was decided to work with this community because of the vision of the Headmen to implement permaculture in his village.

What is the vision of the Haanamoonga AE Landscape Project?

The community’s vision is to have a productive and regenerated landscape that is teaming with biodiversity and able to support a vibrant self-reliant and resilient community. The community aims to transition from their current family farm practices towards regenerative farming practices. This will include reforestation of both family farms and communal lands. They realise that changing their land use practices will support the retention of water and soil. These changes will enable the landscape to be transformed and restore biodiversity. It is also expected that achievement of the vision will improve food and nutritional security for all participating families.

What is the process towards realising this vision?

The broad strategy is to share the vision for a regenerative future with stakeholders in the area and to build a resource team that guides the process going forward while working with the local governance structures. The resource team organised and facilitated community dialogues that brought out the relevant issues and established a baseline. They integrated participatory mapping processes as part of their participatory action research (PAR) and their integrated land use design (ILUD) process. They also introduced the concept of ecovillages to support their understanding of resilience. This was followed by a participatory design process that mapped out the interventions to be implemented.

More specifically ReSCOPE moved quickly in introducing agroecological practices that bring about quick results in order to encourage farmers to stay engaged in the process. The resource team organised training in making bokashi and other biofertilisers to support farmers in the enrichment of their soil. They also focused on reviving lost seeds and shared high quality foundational seed with the farmers. Sanitation was improved with the construction of composting toilets; health was improved with the construction of fuel-efficient rocket stoves. The establishment of rain water harvesting infrastructure has improved access to clean water.

A youth cooperative group was formed and registered to help young people establish a social enterprise and encourage their participation. An ILUD workshop was held at the local school and a plan developed for the school to improve the school grounds.

Community members are slowly taking ownership, constructing rain water harvesting swales, rehabilitating roads so run off water can be harvested, building small check dams along the steams. As a result an old abandoned well had water for the first time in many years. Local seeds are being adopted again and multiplied and farmers increasingly use organic fertilisers.

The sense of community is slowing growing and the level of trust is building up.

What have we learned so far in the project?

• Some sacred sites are still respected, and mapping showed high agrobiodiversity and this knowledge creates a firm foundation on which to build the initiative.
• It is important to synchronise community interventions with the farming cycle otherwise learnings get lost or farmers cannot attend important trainings because they are in the field.
• It is not easy to establish community ownership and an important learning is not to rely too much on one person to lead because this can easily create a leadership vacuum. The answer is to spread leadership. It is important to diversify participation so that all families feel included. Working with community structures such as churches and schools is a way to be inclusive and spread the benefit because these institutions are open to everyone.
• A common problem is that government officials will only attend meetings if they are paid or receive per diems and this is against the principles of ReSCOPE. This makes full stakeholder participation challenging at times.
• In response to the learning that it is their own behavior and practices that undermines the environment, the traditional leadership and community have started the development of bylaws to regulate land use.