Political chaos takes its toll on Zim's wildlife
Date: 18 December 2001
Source: Mail & Guardian (SA)
Author: Fiona Macleod and Jenny Sharman
Zimbabwe's privately run wildlife areas, or conservancies, were set aside for conservation and tourism on land unsuitable for agriculture after a drought devastated the country's south-east regions nearly 10 years ago. The Bubiana Conservancy, a sanctuary for the endangered black rhino, was set up in 1993. All rhinos in Zimbabwe are state-owned and 38 black rhinos were moved to Bubiana from areas where poaching was rife. Two years ago, in response to demands for land, Bubiana set aside 64 000ha for Campfire (communal areas management programme for resources), a sustainable utilisation project that helps communities raise money and food from tourism and hunting. The conservancy also offered land with irrigation potential for the resettlement of 300 families.
Months of negotiations ensued before the government agreed to the proposals, and a handful of families moved on to the allocated land. Over the past past 18 months, however, other parts of Bubiana have been the target of land invasions and poachers. An estimated 30 000 animals have been killed by poachers. Twelve rhinos have been found in snares and a calf was burnt to death in one of several poachers' fires that have killed countless smaller animals. Under the September Abuja Accord, brokered by Commonwealth ministers, Zimbabwe agreed not to settle people on conservancy land. But in the past two months the numbers of invaders have increased substantially.
At the end of October a group of Commonwealth ministers visited Zimbabwe to monitor the government's adherence to the accord. During a speech to dignitaries on October 27 Josiah Hungwe, the governor of the Masvingo area — in which Bubiana partly falls — said: “The latest instructions from above are that nobody should be found squatting on ungazetted properties, in terms of the law. The exercise to remove these people from conservancies has started ... ” Three days later invaders at Bubiana were indeed loaded into army and police trucks, but there had been little preparation for their evacuation. The Agricultural and Rural Extension Department had not pegged out the new plots set aside for them, and the people appeared confused by the demand to leave their huts.
Guy Hilton-Barber, owner of the conservancy's Barberton ranch, was as surprised as the invaders to see the police arriving. “I expected they would be staying here another six or eight months, until they'd reaped their crops,” he says. “But to our astonishment the forces arrived and were instructed to load them on to trucks and burn their houses. The place was just a pall of smoke. It looked like a war zone.” The invaders were taken to a holding point, from where they were to be moved to their newly allocated land. Nine days later they were still waiting. As news of the evacuation filtered back to Harare, it appeared that Hungwe had acted without the knowledge of the MPs for the region, or of governor Cephas Msipa, under whose jurisdiction the other half of Bubiana falls. The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Regare Gumbo, ordered the invaders back to Bubiana. On November 8, a week after the Commonwealth delegation had left, the people were moved back to the land.
On returning to the conservancy, the invaders found their huts had been burned by the police. Bent on revenge, they torched one of the conservancy's safari camps and its staff compounds. Those staff members who hadn't fled were assaulted. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported that the conservancy had offered land and had then reneged on the agreement and burned out the squatters. It was not mentioned that the order for their removal came from Hungwe. The invaders started to believe propaganda that, while Hungwe might have been involved, he was bribed by members of the conservancy. Explains Hilton-Barber: “This belief came about because the army and police arrived here with no petrol and not enough trucks. We had to let them use some of our trucks and diesel. We were seen to be orchestrating the whole thing and accused of bribing the governor to cooperate.”
Despite assurances from the local MPs and governors that they want the conservancy to continue operating and that poaching will not be allowed, two weeks ago “war veterans” and a 70-strong crowd arrived at one of the lodges and demanded that all the staff be sent home. With all the staff gone, poaching has been given a completely free rein. A spokesperson at Bubiana estimates it has already lost about 30 000 animals and more than 200 000 trees in the past 18 months. While MPs have said that the invaders will be removed from Bubiana after the first sowing season in six months' time, the people themselves appear unaware of this.
Bubiana and its neighbouring conservancies, Chiredzi and Save, used to be popular tourism destinations that employed more than 1 000 people and provided the country with a substantial source of foreign exchange. Says Digby Nesbitt, chairperson of Chiredzi conservancy: “The government is saying, ‘yes, we need conservancies and tourism is important', but the priority is the next elections. What they don't understand is that the wildlife is in such a delicate state that if you leave it another four months there'll be nothing left. “Even if the poaching and invasions stopped tomorrow it would take another 10 years to recuperate. The rate the animals are dying, I don't believe this conservancy will last another six months.”