The Sunday Mail
Tafadzwa Kadani
Poaching continues to be a threat to the existence of wildlife as a specie and conservancy as a business the world over, and Zimbabwe is not an exception.
The merciless killing of Cecil the lion and Ntombi the rhino by poachers affected the conservancy industry immensely.
The war against poachers is real, more real than most people may think. This corrupt practice has robbed and continues to rob communities of their rightful inheritance.
Wildlife conservation is one activity that can contribute immensely to community development and economic recovery in Zimbabwe through attracting tourists, if done properly.
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director-general, Mr Edison Chidziya, said poaching was on the rise all over the world and Zimbabwe was not spared.
“Poaching is a global menace and wherever there are elephants and rhinos, poaching is present. We cannot employ a single method for anti-poaching but we have to have a myriad of methods which include sniffer dogs too,” said Mr Chidziya.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) has waged its counter attack and this was done by them signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Frankfurt Zoological Society in 2015 which brought with it many advantages.
The MOU which is valid until 2020 has ushered in a new anti-poaching method which was introduced in the country recently.
Through the Frankfurt Zoological Society, well trained German Shepherd dogs are being used to track down poachers in the Gonarezhou conservancy area and so far the method has proved to be very efficient.
Frankfurt Project Manager at Gonarezhou, Hugo van der Westhuizen, said this was a pilot project in Zimbabwe which is on trial at Gonarezhou National Park.
“Using sniffer dogs is a method that is being used in various countries that include South Africa and we have just introduced it in Zimbabwe,” Mr Van der Westhuizen said.
The pilot project at Gonarezhou started with two German shepherd dogs named Samy and Roxy who were trained by Jay Crafter from a company called InviktusK9.
Samy is the only surviving dog stationed at Gonarezhou, Roxy unfortunately did not survive for long.
One may undermine the ability of this method, in our case as Zimbabwe, since we only have one dog anyone is tempted to certainly doubt the competence and reliability of Samy.
However, to date Samy has helped the anti-poaching unit at Gonarezhou to apprehend five poaching groups; something that rangers might not be able to do.
Samy is being used to track people who might have illegally gained entry into the park or to conduct follow-up on a track after a poaching incident.
Samy is also trained to search for and passively indicate the presence of ivory, weapons and ammunition, plans are also underway to train similar dogs to find poisons and bush meat.
In time when the relevant authorities involved decide to buy more of these sniffer dogs it might actually help reduce the atrocities that are being perpetrated on elephant, rhino and other wildlife.
Mr Chidziya stressed that when it comes to anti-poaching there is no one method that can be used to combat the problem.
“Our statistics are showing a slight rise in the incidence of poaching in Zimbabwe and our biggest fault as a nation is that we still have a sizeable number of these charismatic species thus we need to use many methods to protect these species,” said Mr Chidziya.
He also added that not one strategy could be employed in combating the poaching menace but numerous strategies were needed.
“Working with stakeholders, cross-border collaborations, working with communities, capacitating and reinforcing law enforcement efforts, working with other law enforcement agencies and using aerial patrols are some of the methods that can be used in the fight against poaching,” added Mr Chidziya.
