Graham and Brian Child African Wildlife and Range Management Collection

The Graham and Brian Child African Wildlife and Range Management Collection dates from 1909 to 2004, but the bulk of the collection spans from the 1960s to 2004. Much of the collection involves wildlife policy and programs in Zimbabwe from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Much of Graham Child's papers comes from his years as the Director of National Parks and Wild Life Management in Zimbabwe from 1971 to the 1980s. In addition to the papers, reports, memoranda, and correspondence related to many functions of the Department of National Parks and Wild Life Management, there are many documents relating to Graham Child's dissertation, his early work on Lake Kariba, and his work as a pioneer in developing wildlife programs and national parks in a newly independent Botswana in the 1960s. In addition to data collection, analysis and reports (both governmental and non-governmental), Graham Child amassed a large amount of related literature (off-prints, conference reports, and non-published documents) that span from the early years of the 20th century onwards.

A majority of the collection relates to the research of Dr. Brian Child in the 1980s and early 1990s. Much of his early research relates to game ranching and its economic implications throughout southern Africa. Most significantly, the collection provides excellent documentation of how Brian Child operated the CAMPFIRE program, a community-based natural resource management program that was developed and implemented throughout multiple communities in Zimbabwe. The collection contains excellent examples of the step-by-step progress in the development of the CAMPFIRE program, year-to-year reports including budget analyses, examples of education literature and promotional materials for the program, as well as subsequent analyses and critiques from multiple researchers. Following his work on CAMPFIRE initiatives, Brian Child worked on several community-based wildlife initiatives in Zambia throughout the 1990s. These documents are similar in nature to the CAMPFIRE documents: planning reports, budgets, implementation strategies and follow-up reports. This collection will be of interest to anyone studying Southern African wildlife - be it from an analytical and scientific approach or from a longitudinal socio-political and economic approach.

Other topics covered in the Child Collection include tourism in African countries, the establishment of protected areas in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Natural Resource Management Program (USAID-NRMP), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Wildlife Fund, and wildlife management in Kenya. The collection also includes articles, reports and publications either authored or collected by the Childs. Finally, the collection includes a small quantity of personal letters and mementoes acquired by the Childs.

Note that files designated with asterisks ( ** ) include documents such as articles and reports authored or co-authored by the Graham and Brian Child.