Hwange-born Wildlife Biologist recognised by IFAW for more than a decade of practical conservation solutions protecting lions, livestock and rural livelihoods
By Wallace Mawire
Zimbabwean wildlife biologist and conservationist Liomba-Junior Mathe has been recognised with an international award for more than a decade of work helping rural communities live more safely alongside lions and other large carnivores.
Mathe has been named a 2026 IFAW Animal Action Award winner and will travel to London to receive his award at a prestigious annual event that celebrates remarkable people making an extraordinary difference for animals.
Mathe, who grew up in Hwange town, on the doorstep of Zimbabwe’s largest national park, had few opportunities as a child to experience the wildlife landscape next door. A primary-school trip into Hwange National Park, where he saw elephants, giraffes, zebras and antelope in the wild for the first time, left such an impression that he remembers leaving with the thought that one day he would return.
Years later, he did—first as a Biological Sciences student undertaking an internship with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks), and later as a wildlife biologist specialising in human-carnivore coexistence.
For 11 years, Mathe worked with Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), rising from field assistant to lead the Long Shields Lion Guardian Programme around Hwange National Park.
The programme grew from a crucial realisation that studying lions inside protected areas was not enough. When lions moved into surrounding communities and killed livestock, families could suffer devastating losses and retaliation could follow, with lions speared, poisoned or shot. Mathe and his colleagues shifted their focus towards practical ways to reduce conflict before it happened.
Their approach combined community-based Lion Guardians, early-warning systems, predator-proof mobile bomas and one of the programme’s most unconventional tools—vuvuzelas, loud plastic horns best known from African football matches, used as a simple non-lethal deterrent to haze lions away from livestock and settlements.
Mathe also helped develop and test mobile predator-proof bomas: portable opaque livestock enclosures that block lions’ view of animals inside and reduce opportunities for predation. Moving the bomas between agricultural fields also helps fertilise the soil naturally, linking livestock protection with improved crop production and food security.
Mathe then graduated with first-class honours in Biological Sciences from Midlands State University and later studied International Wildlife Conservation Practice at the University of Oxford’s WildCRU through a Recanati-Kaplan scholarship. His work has since expanded across lions, cheetahs and hyenas, protected-area management, landscape connectivity, community engagement and training conservation practitioners in non-lethal approaches to human-wildlife conflict.
Professor David Macdonald CBE, founder of WildCRU at the University of Oxford, strongly endorsed Mathe’s nomination, describing him as “an absolutely perfect and highly deserving recipient.”
Mathe estimates that he has trained around 150 rangers and community guardians, including IFAW-supported guardians, sharing coexistence approaches developed in Zimbabwe with other landscapes facing similar carnivore challenges.
“This award may have my name on it, but I have never worked alone. There have always been people walking alongside me—communities, colleagues, mentors and conservationists who have shaped my journey. Everything I have learned has come from working with people and wildlife, listening, adapting and finding solutions together. This recognition belongs to them too,” Mathe said.
Today, he is pursuing doctoral research focused on biodiversity monitoring and large-carnivore conservation with the Cheetah Conservation Fund. He says he ultimately hopes to return to southern Africa and contribute at a more strategic level across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), combining his field experience with future work in policy and planning.
Mathe’s work closely reflects IFAW’s mission to help animals and people thrive together. It also echoes the organisation’s Room to Roam approach, which seeks to secure and connect critical landscapes while supporting the communities who share them with wildlife.
Alleta Nyahuye, IFAW Country Director for Zimbabwe, said:
“Liomba represents a generation of African conservation leaders who understand that protecting wildlife cannot come at the expense of people. His work starts by listening to communities and understanding what it means for a family to lose livestock and then finding practical solutions that protect livelihoods while keeping lions alive. That is coexistence in action, and it is exactly the kind of leadership Africa’s wildlife landscapes need for the future.”
For Mathe, the principle remains simple: communities living alongside wildlife should not merely be treated as beneficiaries of conservation, but as partners in shaping solutions that work for both people and animals.
“We need to involve the communities that bear the cost of living next to wildlife. We should not consider them simply as beneficiaries; we should consider them as partners. Conservation works when we come to the table with communities, understand their challenges and work together to find solutions,” said Mathe.
For the boy from Hwange who once left the national park promising himself he would return, the 2026 Animal Action Award marks another milestone in a journey that began at home—and continues to reach far beyond it.
Liomba-Junior Mathe is a Zimbabwean wildlife biologist and conservation practitioner specialising in large-carnivore ecology, human-wildlife coexistence and community-based conservation. He spent 11 years with WildCRU’s Trans-Kalahari Predator Programme in Hwange, including leading the Long Shields Lion Guardian Programme. He holds first-class honours in Biological Sciences from Midlands State University and studied International Wildlife Conservation Practice through Oxford University’s WildCRU. He is currently pursuing doctoral research in natural resource management and ecology at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).
IFAW’s annual Animal Action Awards recognise individuals, organisations and animals making extraordinary contributions to wildlife conservation, rescue and welfare. The awards have grown into an international celebration of conservation leadership. The 2026 awards are the 26th edition of the programme.