The Sunday Mail
The latest spate of elephant killings via cyanide poisoning has ignited an uproar, with several wildlife conservation proposals being proferred. Our Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi spoke to Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri about the poaching saga and Government’s responses.
We publish Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri in her own words.
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Hon Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri
A number of measures have been put in place to address the increasing cases of poaching, and quite a number of people have been arrested.
You will recall that some ivory was seized at the Harare International Airport recently.
Those trophies show that we are able to track down suspects; we are doing our best to get to the bottom of the matter.
One must also recall that our first reaction to reports of cyanide poisoning was forming an inter-ministerial taskforce comprising my ministry and that of Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Heritage, and security agencies.
That team is working as we speak.
One of the matters this taskforce is seized with is reinforcing the operations of rangers.
Hwange National Park spans over thousands of square kilometres, but very few rangers operate there. It does not make sense, therefore, to have only a few rangers in such a large area.
Our concern is also that the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority of Zimbabwe is not providing the right treatment and working conditions to rangers.
Their working conditions are deplorable and that, again, makes no sense.
These rangers are not paid bush allowances; their salaries are very low and they lack basics like tents and food. So, it is easy for them to be tempted into poaching.
They don’t have ambulances and schools, too. We need to resource rangers — immediately.
We have also said rangers should not operate in a particular area for more than five years. They must be deployed to other stations and not get too used to the system as this can lead them to manipulate processes therein.
Further, our team has begun receiving information from surrounding communities and their chiefs who are complaining over not getting anything in terms of development.
They want infrastructure development in their respective areas and other benefits that accrue from the wildlife industry.
So, locals should be more involved in all processes and benefit from the resource in their respective areas.
Government has been found wanting here, especially on hunting quotas.
We need to give resources to such communities so that they do not harbour poachers. Therefore, communities should get hunting quotas.
We are pulling all the stops to combat cyanide poisoning for the purposes of poaching. Information at hand indicates this cyanide is being smuggled from Zambia and South Africa.
We have gathered information on how these syndicates are operating and as we speak, the net is closing in.
A major operation is underway, with a lot of work already done to bring the culprits to book.
It is clear (this kind of poaching) involves a lot of people, but we are going to come down hard on them. Even the Army could be roped in, if need be.
Our ministry will also advocate stiffer jail sentences.
Those involved in such poaching syndicates should be jailed for 20 years. That is our call. However, there have been instances where poachers have been fined US$300 and left to go scot free.
Ultimately, they return to their crime, killing even more animals. Such fines are not deterrent enough; that is why we are advocating mandatory sentences.
What I want to make clear is that we are going to change a lot of things in the wildlife industry. There are going to be serious reforms. We are going to factor in all issues, starting from the bosses down to the rangers. We will, therefore, conduct an audit to get to the bottom of the matter.
It is clear that the system is not watertight.
We are convinced that people who work for the Parks Authority are also involved.
So, we are in the process of increasing the number of rangers, harnessing them from communities that live within or in the vicinity of wildlife areas.
We are also unhappy that money realised by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is being spent on the bosses and not rangers.
It appears money is not being invested in wildlife, but luxuries. I am concerned, for example, that the boss of Hwange National Park actually resides in Bulawayo.
This is an example that casts doubt on whether they are committed to duty or just their lavish lifestyles.
Another major problem has been conflict between communities and rangers.
Our borders are also porous.
We are going to intensify our work by buying equipment: drones, helicopters, vehicles and tracking devices.
Recently, we acquired equipment worth US$3 million from China – boats, tents and trucks for use by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
Another route we are taking is enhancing value addition in the wildlife industry.
We have received an all-clear from all authorities to achieve this.
We want to set up a factory that will see us add value to wildlife products like horns, for instance, so that we can then export and create a value chain industry for the sector.
So, it is a major operation that will be rolled out. Our strategy is multi-pronged.
There will be law enforcement, community participation and incentives for workers to ensure we get to the bottom of the matter. The strategy is holistic.
The Environmental Management Agency is reducing the impact of the cyanide by diluting the poisoned areas.
This is on-going work that will minimise environmental destruction. Ema has activated its systems to achieve this goal. Some quarters might be de-campaigning us, but we will not be deterred as we know that we are doing the right thing.
For example, it is well within our rights to allow sport hunting. There is consumptive and non-consumptive hunting. We have a good record of keeping elephants.
In fact, a good many countries have not fared any better and yet not much noise is made about their situation.
It seems the punishment we get has to be much worse than for others.
At the same time, while we have our own flaws, the situation has been made worse by those with an agenda to discredit us. For example, recently, we got an international ban for some things that we have been doing for all these years.
The ban on trophy hunting is ill-advised as these are the things that also encourage poaching. It does not make sense to ban trophy hunting.
Sport hunting is legal in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe, so there is no need for some international organisations to impose any ban here. The money generated from sport hunting should be used to develop communities. However, we have international bullies that want to set the pace for us.
While the cyanide incident has been very bad for us, we should also understand that there have been worse elephant killings in other countries.
The 60-plus elephants we have lost are few compared to those killed in other countries.
We were criticised for selling elephants to China; that is not fair because recently, we had another African country selling elephants to America.
Rhino poaching is alarming in other countries, but they do not get as much bad publicity as we do.
So, it should be understood that there is too much bad publicity when it comes to Zimbabwe.
