Synopsis
School trip into poachers' territory


Short summary:

A village on the edge of the Lower Zambesi National Park. The children hate wild animals because they destroy harvests and kill people. But there are actually many animals which the children have never seen. We accompany a few children on their first trip into the nearby but unknown wilderness.
Meanwhile Wildlife Police Officers try to track down poachers in the national park. Shots are echoing through the bush.



Accompanying text:

In Europe, it has by now become general consensus that the protection of African wild animals is an urgent priority. But how do the Africans think about it?
In Zambia we visited a village which is located directly on the edge of the Lower Zambesi National Park and asked children what they think about wild animals.
The result surprised us. The children hate wild animals. Lucky tells us, an elephant destroyed the harvest and killed a man. Jesine says that a lion came into the village and ate a child.
In actual fact, the children have never seen many of the wild animals that live in the national park.
We accompany Lucky, Jesine and their schoolmates on their first trip into the park.

The people here are poor, some suffer from starvation. But hunting illegally in order to feed the family could mean long terms of imprisonment.
The Wildlife Police Officer Maziya Banda has already had to arrest some of his friends and relatives who he caught poaching. The anti-poaching brigades are deeply hated in some parts of the population. Banda tells us about villages where people would kill him, if they found out that he works as a Wildlife Police Officer.


Prizes and Awards
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