Conservation
Through exploration
HANKUZI EXPLORATIONS IS A NON-PROFIT EXPEDITION AND CONSERVATION MEDIA COMPANY FOCUSED ON EXPLORING AFRICA’S REMOTEST LANDSCAPES. OUR MISSION IS TO CATALYSE the LONG-LASTING PROTECTION of these ecosystems BY GATHERING CRUCIAL BASELINE SCIENTIFIC DATA USING ground-breaking technologies AND STORYTELLING channels.
WHO WE ARE
Hankuzi Explorations is bringing together a network of partners that has been built over 15 years of experience in the fields of exploration, scientific survey and storytelling, in order to be an integral link in achieving large-scale conservation goals.
Our mission is to connect with the custodians and stewards of keystone landscapes, identifying and documenting areas where community and conservation are still synonymous. Only through their knowledge can we begin to understand the true secrets of these last wild places on the African continent, herein is where ultimately the concept of perpetual protection lies. There is no doubt that the future of conservation in Africa is local.
Our Approach
Hankuzi Explorations focuses on prioritising areas that have received little to no conservation attention, bringing awareness to these landscapes before it is too late. Many of these territories have remained in relatively pristine states due to instability and warfare, including landmines and active armed conflict which have halted development and human footprint. Hankuzi recognises the urgency in accessing these landscapes as early as is safely possible. Being an independent non-profit with a streamlined essential core team, Hankuzi takes the necessary calculated risks in order to be a frontal courageous force in conservation exploration, breaking-ground for larger, established organisations to follow and build upon.
Batsara batsapi basiya mazi shawangale; bakuru bavunji ndoba
“We are the people, who like the current of a mighty stream, cannot be stopped. We make our way through the thickest thickets”
ABOUT THE WAYEYI
Why Hankuzi?
Hankuzi was the legendary Wayeyi leader and explorer that pushed far beyond the boundaries of his people’s known world of the Lozi Kingdom of Baroteseland in modern-day western Zambia and eastern Angola. Eventually discovering the unimaginable wetland paradise of the Okavango Delta.
The wealth of the Wayeyi was their connection to the hippopotamus, and the Okavango Delta was the land of infinite riches. The hippopotamuses nourished them, they engineered the waterways they travelled, and they taught them strength and humility.
Exploration Projects
Upemba: Rediscovering a Forgotten Park
Upemba National Park is at a critical point in its history regarding the conservation opportunity it presents to a region in dire need. Located on the Katanga Plateau of south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the region is characterised by high levels of faunal and floral diversity and endemism. The interplay of varying climatic and topographical variables has given rise to a unique and sensitive suite of ecosystems, including rolling grasslands, towering gallery forests, dramatic escarpments and fertile valleys…
Unfortunately however, the area has a long history of political instability and in recent times resource extraction and development for copper and cobalt production. Through our collaboration with ‘The Forgotten Parks Foundation’ and various other collaborators we aim to survey the various ecosystems contained within the Park and produce cutting-edge and robust scientific outputs that can benefit the wildlife, the park, the local communities and the people of Congo.
The Mporokoso Plateau: The land of Falling Water
The Mporokoso Plateau is situated in northern Zambia, and straddles both the Congolese and Tanzanian borders. It is a rocky plateau dominated by a matrix of miombo woodland and many interconnected water bodies and rivers. The large densities of water feed numerous waterfalls, which ultimately recharge multiple culturally, biologically and commercially important lakes adjacent to the plateau. The plateaus’ ancient rivers are the source of one of Africa’s most successful and diverse fish families, …
the Cichlidae, which radiated from these rivers over millions of years. The most important rivers on the plateau include the Chambeshi, Luapula, Luwombwa, Luongo, and Kalungwishi rivers. Although varying in both size and flow, they are all integral to the Congo river system, which relies on the enormous amounts of fresh water captured in their sources. Our main goal is to conduct a riverine expedition of all these rivers. Through the collection of robust biotic and abiotic datasets we aim to quantify the ecological, commercial and community value of all these systems to inform conservation legislation and safeguard them for generations to come.
Last Forests of the Western Abyssinian Plateu: Sacred Catchments
The western regions of the Abyssinian Massif, in south-eastern Ethiopia, are of great ecological and cultural importance given the enormous amounts of water stored in the plateau. The largest patch of Afromontane forest in the region is found here and it’s these forests that protect the major headwaters of the Sobat river system, the second largest eastern contribution of water to the Nile, after the Blue Nile. The Sobat is formed by the confluence of the Baro and Pibor …
river systems. The Baro system is of great importance to the region as it feeds the Gambella Swamps of Gambella National Park, which together with Boma National Park in western South Sudan, is the eastern destination for the immense, west-to-east migration of the white-eared kob, tiang and Mongalla gazelle. This migration is Africa’s second largest terrestrial migration, only surpassed by the wildebeest migration of the Serengeti. The headwaters of the Baro and Akobo river systems are located in the Sheka Forests, one of the few remaining and contiguous tracts of Afromontane forests in Ethiopia, which were declared the UNESCO Sheka Forest Biosphere Reserve in 2012. The Shekacho people are a vibrant and culturally-rich community within the Sheka forests that are fabled for their synergistic and holistic relationship with the forest. Unfortunately the forests are threatened by commercial interests which seek to utilise the resources found here with little regard for the devastating ecological and cultural consequences that will result from unsustainable practices. In this project we aim to survey both the Sheka forest (terrestrial biodiversity survey) and the Alwero river, from its source in Sheka (riverine survey) to quantify the true value of this system. Through our multi-faceted approach, which focuses on both people and place, we aim to contribute to the protection of this region through the generation of robust, conservation-informing scientific findings.
Key Project to Measure impacts
the Great Spine Of Africa
The first scientific and narrative pathways that Hankuzi Explorations will be taking on its conservation storytelling journey will start with the “Spine of Africa” project, the backbone of the waterways and architecture of the first continent.
This vision of Africa was borne while gazing at Africa through the window of a Boeing 757 at 30 000ft. We were busy crisscrossing over this beautiful continent multiple times in a short few weeks. While taking in this incredible, diverse continent from above, my excitement and passion became focused on the longitudinal, mountainous “Spine” extending along the mid-eastern axis of our continent. This mountainous “Spine of Africa” spanning most of central-eastern sub-Saharan Africa, north to south, is the home for my passion for upper catchments, expanding the dream and the realization that this vast, interconnected story needs to be unveiled and told.
Our Methods
Documenting the remotest and most inaccessible wildernesses of the world is key to forming a benchmark to be able to understand their current state, their vulnerabilities, and their threats in the future.
As a conservation and media organisation, we are committed not only to the creation of science but to the dissemination of it too. Through our partnership with industry leading scientists and bold storytellers, we aim to shine a light on Africa’s remotest wildernesses, highlighting both their beauty and their intrinsic conservation value. Nature cannot be divorced from humanity and for this reason we are committed to community-led conservation initiatives through the collaboration with local communities, organisations and scientific institutions. We are a versatile organization, comfortable on both land and water, and regularly pair both riverine and terrestrial biodiversity surveys to produce the most robust scientific results. Our cutting edge scientific methodologies (which include next generation environmental DNA sequencing, broad spectrum taxonomic sampling and riverine spatial mapping) coupled with our intrepid outlook on content creation lends itself to great stories and most importantly, the recognition and protection of Africa’s awe inspiring wild spaces.
CONTACT US
Hankuzi Explorations
info@hankuzi.org
Help Us discover Africa’s Unseen Conservation Opportunities
Our work in accessing and exploring Africa’s last pristine wilderness landscapes, protected by inaccessibility and political unrest, will unveil some of the greatest conservation opportunities of our time. The clock is ticking on who arrives to these areas first: conservation or unchecked, destructive development. We need to give the local communities, the custodians of these landscapes, the data, the voice and the decision-making strength to protect their territories the way they have for time immemorial. Your support will ensure the continuation of this vital work.
