Please help Kasanka Trust take legal action required to save Kasanka National Park, where the world's largest colony of fruit bats migrates annually to rear its young.

Despite efforts of Kasanka Trust to raise awareness and provide clear evidence that would allow authorities to act against illegal encroachment on protected areas, the Zambian government continues to turn a blind eye and enable illegal deforestation in Kafinda Game Management Area.

After more than two years of being repeatedly let down by the government whose mandate is to help protect Kasanka National Park, and with the Lake Group destroying more native habitat with every day that passes, Kasanka Trust has been left with no choice but to peruse the matter in court. They urgently need help raising funds to cover legal costs and make this possible!

Funds raised from this t-shirt will be donated to support Kasanka Trust.

The survival of ten million straw-colored fruit bats may hinge on your voice. They come from across equatorial Africa to feast on the high diversity and abundance of fruits in the landscape in and around Kasanka National Park, with the dense evergreen swamp forest in the heart of the park serving as critical roosting habitat each October and November.

Loss of Kasanka?s bats could threaten whole ecosystems and economies across most of equatorial Africa, resulting in needless desertification, not to mention depriving humans of one of our planet?s greatest remaining wildlife wonders. These bats spread thousands of tons of seeds nightly, covering enormous expanses during seasonal migrations. The value of their ecoservices is almost unimaginable.

"Kasanka National Park receives the highest level of protection in Zambia ? because of the unique flora and fauna that it supports ? but critical to the whole ecosystem is the habitat immediately surrounding that park, which is also theoretically protected as Kafinda Game Management Area. In 2019, however, illegal deforestation by the Tanzanian based Lake Group and its subsidiaries Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures commenced. More background to this issue is provided here.

Between July 2019 and today, Kasanka Trust has worked tirelessly to raise awareness and engage with government bodies to put a stop to this using the standard procedures. This has included communications with Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Lands, Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), Zambia Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA), Central Province Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), Office of the Public Protector Zambia, Chitambo Local Council, District Commissioner?s Office Chitambo.

A timeline of actions taken by Kasanka Trust, government bodies and the Lake Group is provided here.

Government departments have repeatedly instructed Lake Agro Industries and Gulf Adventures to stop illegal agricultural and game ranching activities and move to more appropriate areas designated for such land use. Yet in the past few months alone, almost 400 hectares of forest have been cleared, bringing the estimated total area of illegal deforestation to over 800 hectares for Lake Agro Industries, and 300 hectares for Gulf Adventures.

And there have been no action taken to enforce the Stop Orders or implement the law of this country outside court. There have been no repercussion for the companies ignoring the law and destroying Zambia?s natural heritage. In contrast, ZEMA is now considering acting retrospectively with the Lake Agro Industries commercial farm and granting permission for it to expand to a footprint of 7,000 hectares.

In response to the Lake Agro Industries? retrospective and inadequate Environmental & Social Impact Statement, over 40 organisations supported Kasanka Trust?s objection and at least 500 separate representations were made to ZEMA against the application, as reported here.

A petition to the president has attracted over 6,000 signatures. Yet somehow ZEMA has concluded that members of the Zambian public are not interested in this issue and has decided to hold the public hearing in an incredibly remote and difficult to access location, preventing many stakeholders from being able to attend to make representations.

Kasanka National Park is in crisis, and the Trust has run out of other options to protect this precious corner of the Earth. We have been forced to commence legal proceedings and have the matter reviewed by a court of law. While we are confident that this is the appropriate course of action to take, it comes at a high cost. Like many NGOs, particularly those depending on income from tourism, Kasanka Trust is already struggling to recover from the financial repercussions of COVID-19.

We are immensely grateful for all the support we have received so far, both within Zambia and from friends around the globe. But we are reaching out once more to request that you please do all you can to donate something, no matter what small amount, and urge your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

The future of Kasanka National Park is relying on this!"