IAN STEVENSON ‘ The lower Zambezi is one of the big strongholds of elephants left in Africa’

Ambling silently through chartreusegreen reeds, an elephant and her calf have crossed to one of many islands anchored in the Zambezi River. Hot and thirsty, herds are scattered across Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park – some feeding on the pods of winter thorn trees arching over dusty banks; others wading through pools of ruby evening light.

It’s a fairy-tale scene of peace and harmony, but conservationist Ian Stevenson recalls that it wasn’t always that way.

“When I started flying down here 20 years ago, I’d take off and see 20 drying racks in a morning,” says the accomplished pilot and CEO of NGO Conservation Lower Zambezi. “Lion prides were moving from one carcass to another. We were being hit hard. In 2015 alone, we lost 107 elephants.”

Last year, that figure drastically reduced to one, largely as a result of the efforts made by Stevenson and his team. A combination of improved relations with the government’s Department of National Parks, deployment of specialised surveillance teams, a greater intelligence network and a change of attitudes within communities has helped elephant populations recover. Stevenson, who was born in Australia, now describes the Lower Zambezi as “one of the big strongholds of elephants left in Africa, in the world for that matter”.

Elephants have always been a passion for the calm, modest leader, who repeatedly credits his 76-strong team for the success of CLZ. Thirty-three years ago, while travelling through Tanzania’s Serengeti as an over-landing tourist guide, Stevenson had an encounter that would ultimately set him on a new career path.

“I came across a small herd of elephants that had been poached. I don’t know why, but it had a real impact on me,” he recalls, still shaken by the memory. “For the last 20 years I’ve been protecting them.”

Managing a lodge in the Lower Zambezi National Park led him to get involved in darting and de-snaring work, eventually resulting in jobs for African Parks and CLZ.

He admits that the risk elephants could be wiped out in parts of Africa still concerns him, but he believes the focus should now be on protecting their habitats: “We’ve got to maintain those big ecosystems without all the fences, the barriers and the borders. Then I think elephants have got a very good possibility of survival.”

Ian Stevenson was shortlisted for this year’s Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa

Abercrombie & Kent (01242 547 760; abercrombiekent.co.uk) offers an 11-night Active Zambia trip from £7,775pp based on two sharing. It includes all flights, transfers, safaris, full board and a night-drive safari. Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairlines. com) flies to Zambia from London and Manchester via Addis Ababa