“We have to understand that wildlife is a resource and it’s not an infinite resource.” The co-founder and chief executive of the Amalinda Safari Collection in Zimbabwe is clear on what needs to be done.
Sharon Stead is sad and mad in equal measure. We chatted a few weeks after the trophy hunting of Blondie, the lion, outside Hwange National Park, and it still rankled.
Blondie, a well-known, collared lion studied by University of Oxford academics, had allegedly been lured out of its usual habitat and killed by trophy hunters. A dominant breeding male in its prime, the loss of Blondie, who led three females and 10 cubs, is devastating.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority defended the hunt and their spokesman, Tinashe Farawo, explained that this “is how people hunt”, which doesn’t sit well with Sharon.
She has championed non-consumptive tourism for more than three decades as the CEO and co-founder of the family-owned Amalinda Safari Collection, with lodges in Matopos and Hwange National Park.
Sharon has been pivotal in setting up anti-poaching systems and working with communities affected by human-wildlife conflict, founding the Mother Africa Trust in 2001 to solidify her commitment to conservation and development.
The impetus for the Mother Africa Trust came during Zimbabwe’s “lost decade” of 2000 to 2010. “We were going through our hyperinflation years and we were in our land reform programme. It collapsed our industry and the health systems,” Sharon says. “That’s when I started looking at what else can we do? What might we do that can help assist the people who live alongside us and alongside wildlife that they live in fear of, but can benefit from?”
She called it Mother Africa Trust because, “I do believe that women have this more innate sense of nurturing, of protecting. I do believe woman will change the world.”
In Hwange and Matopos, the Trust has invested more than $726,000 in community support over the past 20 years. “Unless you’re in the ring with your shoulder against the wheel, actually in the grind, you won’t know how the communities work, how they live in fear of wildlife.”
Over those two decades, she’s faced down challenges, including being a woman leading a company that’s the custodian of great tracts of land where wildlife exists only because they are protected.
Another challenge is her own lack of diplomacy:
Sharon is disarmingly frank. “I’ve always been challenged in the fact that I’m a woman and I’m not diplomatic. I tend to shoot from the hip and just say it as it is,” she admits. “I’ve had to learn a lot about being more diplomatic.”
On a pragmatic level, there are huge challenges. Sharon’s concession acts as a porous buffer zone between communities and the national park, leading to constant pressure.
“The communities are on one side, then there’s our concession and then you have the national park. We’re getting this constant pressure from the community to either give firewood or graze cattle. I feel a lot of pressure to make sure that we are protecting that tract of land.”
The 15km boundary with the community sees daily issues, from problem animal control to trophy hunting. This brings her back to Blondie: “Right now, I’m trying to establish a lion-hunting moratorium in Hwange,
along the boundaries of Hwange National Park. I believe there are no pride males or no resident lions living on our concession anymore. They’ve all been baited off.”
For Sharon, the issue is simple: “The communities are being supported and their livelihoods are being supported by these live lions, not dead lions.” The tourism dollars funding the Trust’s work are spent by visitors who come to see born free, unfenced lions.
“When those are killed, it affects our livelihoods and our business, and the community. All our efforts… are being washed away by this random killing of lions.”
Amalinda also works to mitigate human-wildlife conflict by building predator-proof bomas for community livestock.
The Mother Africa Trust is also rolling out its Compassionate Response Fund. It gives financial consolation to households for livestock (including cattle, donkeys, goats and sheep) killed by lions and cheetahs in Hwange District. Sharon stresses that it’s not insurance – “it is a compassionate support system to help affected households”.
It’s a smart concept: the fund reinforces conservation programmes and strengthens collaboration with communities in the area around the Amalinda concession.
In Matopos, where the risk of big cats is absent, Sharon focuses on rhino protection. “Touch wood: rhino poaching is not as it is in South Africa. The rhinos are guarded 24-7. They have scouts, they’re pretty much ear-tagged so that they know where they go.”
Sharon holds an almost religious regard for Matopos, the land of the balancing rocks. “If you haven’t been to Matopos, you really haven’t touched the soul of Africa. It’s about the topography and history and the sacred cultures that are there. It’s like God was playing marbles with all these granite forms, these balancing rocks, stunning.”
Working in non-consumptive tourism started as a means to preserve a lifestyle for the family, but Sharon now calls it “about 80% hard grind and about 20% lifestyle”.
The reward comes from seeing tourists’ reactions to the wild: “When you see that reaction that reminds you every single day how lucky we are and how important it is that we continue to protect it.”
At heart, her life is rich in the modern world’s ultimate luxuries: space and time. “People come to Africa to where there’s vast tracts of land and where the animals roam free… To spend time in that space is so grounding.”
The trick is to safeguard it. “We have to understand that wildlife is a resource and it’s not an infinite resource, it’s finite.” She stresses that if free movement and animal corridors aren’t protected, the alternative is to “fence it and then farm it”, as is done in South Africa.
Success stories give Sharon the drive to continue. “With our anti-poaching unit, the success is a massive one. We have a snare wall that we’ve built at Sable Valley of snares we’ve picked up on that concession.”
Another success are “our female rangers … because it takes a lot of guts to sleep three females on their own in the bush throughout our concession, which is 15,500 acres. They’re looking for human incursions, for wildlife leaving the concession… They’re facing down big game every single day. I take my hat off to the women who do that.”
While the Trust has provided emergency food aid, such as feeding 926 children a meal a day for six months during the 2016 drought, Sharon does not see that as sustainable. She prioritises programmes that uplift women in cooperatives to be basket weavers, beekeepers, or mushroom growers. “Those are more sustainable. Those give people a reason to work and a form of their own income.”
Amalinda Safari Collection defined in three words: Family, authentic, nostalgic Africa.
Sharon Stead defined in three words: Passionate, protective, warrior.
“I’m deeply committed to our country and to our people and to conservation,” she affirms. “My heart is with these wide open spaces and what’s left of them and to protect them.”
What do you love about the bush? “I was born and grew up in the bush. It’s the smell of the dust, the changing of the seasons, from watching the young animals being born to the harsh, brutal pain of the dry season, and I think just the peace.”
Top tip for a visitor to Zimbabwe? “There’s nothing contrived about Hwange, Mana Pools or Matusadona. That is the real authentic wild destination. But you’re going to have to work to see those animals. It’s not the same as the Serengeti; it’s not Kruger. The reward is so much more when you do get to see that animal. Don’t expect to see the Big Five in an afternoon.”
A perfect 48-hour weekend? “Go to Matopos because it’s such a sacred place. The rituals, the topography, the whale-backed dwalas, you’re just not going to see that anywhere else. There’s a spirituality about Matopos that will not find anywhere else. Matopos rejuvenates your soul.”
It’s late and the sun is setting. Sharon signs off in Bulawayo; in Cape Town I pull up Google and start looking for flights to Matopos.
Daily flights are available out of Joburg to Bulawayo with Airlink and Fastjet.
If you’re a travel agent keen to learn more about Zimbabwe and other destinations across Africa’s Eden, explore our upcoming travel shows and events.
