GOVERNMENT has admitted that poachers were taking advantage of the lax security at the country’s border posts to cross Zambezi River into Hwange National Park, where they have wreaked havoc targeting elephants and other prized wildlife species.
BY VENERANDA LANGA Environment minister Oppah Muchinguri told Parliament on Wednesday that the government recently imposed a ban on trophy exportation as a stop-gap measure to tame the vice.
“The ministry looked at the porous border, which covers Zambezi River, which at the moment is almost 20% full and many poachers are crossing the river into Hwange National Park,” she said.
“As a ministry, we were having problems of conservation and preservation and we embarked on investigations to establish what was happening in the Gwayi area and as a stop-gap measure, we imposed a temporary ban, which was subsequently followed by an imposed ban on trophy exportation from Zimbabwe.
“As a result of the killing of Cecil the Lion, there was an outcry, not only in Zimbabwe, but internationally, over a lion that we had taken care of for 13 years only to be lost to a hunt from a bow and arrow. We, therefore, decided as a ministry to carry out investigations to establish the activities that were taking place in that area.”
Muchinguri said they later realised the ban would affect Zimbabwe’s standing at the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference scheduled to take place next year because most of the hunters were from the United States.
“The United States ban of the exportation of trophies was also promoting a lot of poaching within the Gwayi area and also within Hwange National Park,” she said.
Muchinguri said an elephant costs $120 000 in sport hunting activities if the hunt was carried out lawfully. She said the proceeds could be ploughed towards developing infrastructure and assisting communities endowed with wildlife to get money to pay school fees and for food.
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“Surrounding communities lose their crops to these wild animals. The ban is depriving communities of the much-needed resources,” she said.
Early this month, more than 20 elephants were poisoned with cyanide by suspected poachers.
In 2013, as many as 300 elephants died in Hwange National Park after poachers laced salt pans with cyanide. Many vultures also died after feeding on the poisoned elephant carcasses and it is feared that this will happen again.
Cyanide is widely used in the mining industry and is relatively easy to obtain.
Although elephants are vulnerable across Africa, Zimbabwe has a large elephant population, which the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority estimates at more than 100 000.
