The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
Animal rights activists have warned that Government’s planned sale of animals in the country’s national reserves to individuals in order to prevent them from starvation could make wildlife poaching easier.
This follows the decision by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to invite bids from individuals and private game-keepers to purchase various animals in its sanctuaries.
The decision that was announced by parks authorities a couple of months ago, is meant to keep game alive throughout the current drought as waterholes and grasslands are fast running out.
Speaking in Masvingo last week after a tour with journalists, the authority’s public relations manager, Caroline Washaya-Moyo, confirmed the position saying the number of animals to be sold will be determined by the number of bids received.
“We have asked individuals and private gamekeepers to step in and buy wild animals in light of the drought, but the number of animals to be sold will depend on the number of bids we receive,” she said.
Big game such as elephants, lions, zebras and impalas are among the animals that are expected to be targeted for sale.
While it is not yet clear how much the animals will be sold for, interested bidders are required to pay a non-refundable amount of $50 as an expression of interest.
The Government says the amount realised from the sales will be used to support the remaining animals in the reserves to survive the drought.
However, while the move appears to be an effective conservation solution, there are fears that international poaching syndicates could masquerade as interested private local buyers or connive to gain easy access to Zimbabwe’s wildlife.
“Nobody knows whether or not private rangers purporting to have keen interest in buying starving animals will keep the animals,” independent animal rights activist Leander Saburi told the Thompson Reuters Foundation last week.
“They could be ivory poachers posing as private rangers so that they easily gain access to our wildlife,” he added.
Saburi’s assessment is that there is no clear mechanism put in place to ensure that the sold animals will remain in Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, experts have suggested that selling the animals will spur corruption and affect national parks’ earning power in the future.
And as organised wildlife poaching syndicates have intensified their operations in Zimbabwe in recent years, not everyone has warmed up to the idea of selling animals to private rangers and individuals.
Wildlife protection group, Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force’s chairman Johnny Rodriguez says Government should have prepared for the drought since it was warned of the El Nino early enough.
He said that steps should have been taken earlier to store food and drill enough boreholes.
In an unrestrained attack on the parks authority, he said the move to sell wildlife is an unashamed act of mismanagement.
“This is all poor management, they may blame it on the drought or the weather all they want but there has always been an appetite to sell,” he said.
“They have sold elephants to the Chinese before, was there drought? So this is nothing associated to drought.”
Rodriguez, too, is of the view that selling to individuals could promote poaching but he refused to blame private buyers saying they are just trying to survive.
National parks, on the other hand, maintains that the process of selling to private rangers is water tight and difficult to manipulate.
As part of the bidding process, bidders will be required to provide information about where they intend to keep acquired animals. They will give the name and address of the property, its size and its ownership. A lot of paper work will be needed and tight screening will be done to plug any loopholes.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate; Mr Prince Mupazviriho, said there was no chance that poachers could manipulate the system since everything will be done by the book.
“Our thrust is never to export but conservation,” he said.
“The selling procedure will be systematic and you can get that from Zimparks but I can assure you that things will be done properly.”
But an email sent to Zimparks’ spokesperson Washaya-Moyo to give further clarification on the procedure of selling the wildlife, costs and how exactly the buyers would be screened was not yet responded to by the time of going to print.
Research has indicated that there are about 40 000 elephants, 100 other mammals and 400 birds at one of the county’s largest wildlife sanctuary, Hwange National Park.
In total, the number of elephants in the country is around 80 000, against a carrying capacity of about 45 000.
As such, even in the absence of drought, these numbers have been causing food security problems for both humans and wildlife as the numbers have become unsustainable. And following the El Nino-induced drought, the conservation authority has been left with no other solution but to dispose of some wildlife.
Researcher and ecologist, Lovelater Sebele says elephants need between 200 and 300kg of forage and about 200 litres of water daily.
Therefore, with Zimbabwe’s elephant population standing at around 80 000, 16 million litres of water and 24 000 tonnes of food are needed every day for the mammals only. Then there are also other heavy eaters such as giraffes, rhinos and buffaloes.
With these challenges and a relatively good value of elephants which ranks around $40 000 each, the option of selling, if not manipulated, seems to be the best.
This is not the first time that Zimbabwe has controlled wildlife during drought. In 1992, the Government resorted to culling, whereby it selectively slaughtered animals and distributed the meat in communities. Some anti-poaching organisations believe culling is a better option than selling as it has a direct benefit to the society. Those who subscribe to this idea believe selling can end up benefiting a few individuals.
