The Shangani Holistic Workshop was convened from 16 to 19 October 2023 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in a partnership between the Oppenheimer Programme in African Landscape Systems (OPALS), Future Ecosystems for Africa (FEFA), and Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC). The workshop’s main aim was to strengthen the alignment of activities between the OPALS and FEFA programmes, discuss impactful research and re-visit the FEFA working groups. As part of the Shangani ranch tour, the main challenges were bush encroachment and transmission of diseases from wildlife to livestock. As such, the ranch is investigating using goats and prescribed fire to control bush encroachment and the possibility of using indigenous methods of treating wildlife-livestock diseases.

The workshop comprised the following sessions: a tour of Shangani Ranch, impactful research, research perspectives from Zimbabwe, and FEFA/OPALS working groups.

The session on impactful research was interactive, and participants were requested to identify stakeholders their research would impact; this information will be used to map OPALS and FEFA stakeholders. OPALS and FEFA aim to build a collective narrative to share with the broader world. The next session on research perspectives saw presentations from different researchers on the work being done in Shangani and its alignment with FEFA/OPALS programmes. The last session on working groups led to re-looking the working groups and identifying new groups or amending existing ones. The session also allowed participants to identify relevant groups related to their projects. The groups agreed to work together on various outputs and will meet regularly to push this work.

Please take a look at the summary report of the workshop here.