Troops sent to protect wildlife

Date: 24 Sept 2000

Source: Sunday Times (SA )

Author: Anon

The Zimbabwe government is to deploy soldiers to protect wildlife threatened by poachers, mainly war veterans, in the country's largest game reserve, the Save Valley Conservancy.

The government committed itself to the deployment of soldiers at the conservancy, which is about 500km southeast of Harare and spread over 3 420km², to combat rampant poaching in one of the last remaining natural habitats for the black rhino, cheetah, python and wild dog after the National Parks and Wildlife Management complained about the war veterans.

More than 1 600 animals worth about Z30-million have been lost to poaching since war veterans occupied part of the conservancy at the start of the land invasions in February this year.

The deputy director of the National Parks and Wildlife Management, Vitalis Chadenga, said that the carcasses of hundreds of animals had been recovered in the past seven months, including 634 impala, more than 300 kudu, 187 warthogs, four giraffes, two elephants and a lion. He feared more could have been killed since, judging by the assortment of 10 440 snares recovered from the reserve.

"We welcome this new development that government will deploy soldiers to curb poaching. Our officers could do nothing about it since the war veterans' presence at the game park was a politically sensitive issue," Chadenga said.

The poachers pulled down a 340km-long stretch of electric perimeter fencing and turned it into snares .

The conservancy was founded in 1991 to safeguard the unique ecosystem adjoining Zimbabwe's secondlargest river, the Save .

More than Z8-million worth of bookings have been cancelled by tourists fearing being attacked by the hundreds of war veterans .

The occupiers have also destroyed thousands of hectares of savannah forest in the game park by haphazardly chopping down trees for firewood and for building their pole and mud houses . - Sunday Times correspondent