How Communities in Zambia and Zimbabwe Are Leading Climate Adaptation

Across Southern Africa, communities are experiencing intensifying droughts, rising temperatures, and shrinking natural resources. Climate change, combined with deforestation and a heavy dependence on rain-fed agriculture, has placed growing pressure on rural livelihoods.

But in the villages of Nsongwe in southern Zambia and Monde near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, local groups are demonstrating that climate adaptation does not have to rely on large investments in infrastructure.

Sometimes, it begins with patience, and with trees.

Supported by the Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) Initiative’s Innovation Fund and implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, local groups in both communities are implementing nature-based solutions (NbS) that restore degraded ecosystems while strengthening long-term livelihoods.

These initiatives reveal how community leadership, local knowledge, and sustained commitment can lay the foundation for climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.

Reviving Landscapes and Livelihoods in Nsongwe Village, Zambia

Located about 7 kilometres from Livingstone, Nsongwe sits on the banks of its namesake river, a waterway that many community members remember as a lifeline for farming, fishing, and household needs.

Times have changed, however. Over the years, drought, damming, and deforestation, among other drivers of environmental degradation, have dramatically reduced the flow of the river. The riverbanks, stripped of vegetation, were eroded, parched, and sunbaked. When the rains did come, the waters flowed quickly through the community. As a result, water insecurity had increased in the area.

To respond to this challenge, residents started exploring how they could work with nature to begin restoring the Nsongwe River. Riverbank stabilization and revegetation were identified as key priorities, and bamboo was selected as a practical, native, and effective species for achieving these aims. This is how the Matoya Bamboo Project came to life.

Since the project’s inception, cooperative members have planted approximately 1,000 bamboo seedlings along village sections of the Nsongwe River.

With support from the CAPA Innovation Fund, the group was able not only to purchase the bamboo seedlings and support labour costs, but also to install piping that connected an existing community borehole to storage tanks closer to the planting sites. This made water delivery and irrigation more efficient and reduced the physical burden on cooperative members.

The team built strong management skills along the way.  

“We have learned how to document our activities, manage our accounts, and run the project efficiently,” Mwanza explained. “Even when the project ends, the knowledge we have acquired will go a long way.”

While ecological restoration takes time, the cooperative hopes that their efforts contribute to increased local water security and the gradual recovery of the Nsongwe River. Community leaders also hope that the restoration approach could eventually expand along more of the river’s 8-kilometre stretch.

Patience and Purpose in Monde, Zimbabwe

In Monde, near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe’s Hwange District, climate change has reshaped both landscapes and livelihoods.

Years of drought and rising temperatures have reduced native vegetation and limited economic opportunities, particularly for older women whose earning options have steadily declined.

Many members of the Asizameni Omama Women’s Cooperative believed their working years were behind them.

“We thought opportunities like this were for younger people,” one cooperative member reflected during a recent visit. “Society had already forgotten us.”

The CAPA Innovation Fund offered something unexpected: an opportunity for the women to lead an initiative of their own, and to contribute to a more resilient future.

With the CAPA Innovation Fund support, the cooperative established a small nursery to grow ilala palm seedlings, alongside planting fruit trees intended to support future household nutrition. The intended benefits are multiple: a resource that supports local livelihoods, biodiversity, and climate resilience.  

The process, however, is slow.

Ilala palms germinate gradually, and many seedlings in the nursery are still emerging. Some have yet to sprout. The fruit trees planted alongside them will take several years to mature.

For now, the benefits are not measured in harvests or income.

They are measured in ownership and the pride that comes with each sprouting plant.

Despite their age, cooperative members tend the nursery daily, watering seedlings, protecting young plants, and monitoring their growth.

“We did not think we could still run something ourselves,” Eunice Moyo, Vice Secretary of the cooperative, explained. “Now we want to prove that we can make it succeed.”

Lessons for Community-Led Climate Adaptation

The experiences in Nsongwe and Monde highlight several lessons about climate adaptation in rural communities.

First, NbS require time. Restoring ecosystems is a gradual process, and meaningful results often take years to emerge.

Second, community ownership matters. When local groups design and manage their own initiatives, they build skills, confidence, and long-term commitment.

Finally, small interventions can lay the groundwork for larger change. Whether planting bamboo along a riverbank or nurturing palm seedlings in a nursery, community-led efforts can begin restoring landscapes while strengthening social resilience.

The Matoya Bamboo Project in Zambia and the Asizameni Omama Women’s Cooperative in Zimbabwe are still early in their journeys, yet their work shows how climate adaptation can take root through patience, collaboration, and the determination of communities shaping their own futures.