Reviving the Luangwa: The Empty Valley and the Deal (6-minute Video)

This is the eastern bank of the Luangwa River, in Zambia’s Eastern Province.

Twenty years ago, one man came here looking for something most conservationists would have avoided: a landscape that had already been emptied of its wildlife, where the challenge would be to bring it back.

The valley lies within a cluster of private reserves on the eastern side of the Luangwa, an unfenced landscape where wildlife moves freely across the countryside.

What Zaeed Patel found was not a totally defunct ecosystem. The habitat was still there. The trees still stood. But the animals were almost gone.

Years of bushmeat hunting had stripped the valley of its wildlife. For many families, wild meat was one of the few resources they could harvest at no cost, providing both food and income in an area with few alternatives.