Politics and land invasions affect raptors in Zimbabwe
Date: 2002
Source: Peregrin Fund Report
Author: Ron Hartley
Zimbabwe is one of the best places in the world for raptor enthusiasts and naturalists, having a great variety of habitats and species. For many years Zimbabwe has placed a premium on its wildlife and conservation. Nearly 13% of the country consists of protected areas, while up until three years ago 28% consisted of large scale commercial farmland which was privately owned. Since the introduction of progressive wildlife laws in 1976 when landowners were given ownership of wildlife, most private land has been stewarded for its wildlife and wild lands. Many commercial farmers have also derived an income from photographic and hunting safaris. Generally habitats have been better conserved and wildlife has prospered over this period. Consequently, raptor populations have benefited as well.
Unfortunately political strife has torn apart this system, especially private land, nearly all of which is being seized by the government, aided and abetted by ad hoc land invaders. For nearly three years the country's 4,500 commercial farmers have been under siege and to date some 2,900 have been dispossessed of their properties, without compensation. Some farmers have had their moveable goods (eg. tractors, machinery, livestock, etc.) taken as well.
It is estimated that land invaders and other poachers have destroyed about 60% of the country's wildlife. These people are also steadily deforesting many areas and burning them repeatedly. Six out of seven of our study areas have been affected and we are trying to measure and assess the impact of these problems. It is just as well that we have made a concerted effort to measure the variety and abundance of raptors in these systems through our raptor community studies, otherwise we would not be able to fully understand subsequent declines and changes in species' distribution and abundance. Also, understanding the damage done by land invaders may well assist in rehabilitating some of these areas in the future and reinforce the importance of conserving protected areas, including some of the privately owned wildlife conservancies. While the government has stated that it will spare the conservancies (about 8,000 km 2 ), several properties have been invaded and poaching has been intense on these and other sections.
Sadly the consequences of land reform in Zimbabwe have generally been private land populated by increasing numbers of subsistence farmers, without any title. In a system without title, "each owner of a goat has to graze as much and as quickly as possible before his neighbor's goat does," and "everyone has to plant mielies (corn) every year on every available patch because if they don't someone else will," says Peregrine Fund supporter and ex-Zimbabwean David Maritz. The inevitable consequence is land degradation and loss of agricultural production from overgrazing, over-cultivation, and deforestation. In the end, everyone suffers.
This process is going on right beside my base of operations at Falcon College near Bulawayo where nearly all neighboring commercial farmers have been evicted over the past six months. In this area we have recorded 340 species of birds, including 44 species of diurnal raptors, and eight species of owls. Raptors were first monitored here from 1961-1970 by Peter Steyn who wrote the book Birds of Prey of Southern Africa . Peter also published several papers on work done here, including on Bateleur, Brown and Black-breasted Snake Eagles, Wahlberg's Eagle, Tawny Eagle, African Hawk Eagle, and Martial Eagle. I have monitored the raptor community here from 1983-present, so there is some valuable long-term data, which may well become more relevant as circumstances deteriorate. I have also monitored a raptor community on a 100 km 2 study area on the eastern flank of the famous Matobo Hills, some 30 km from home. This 3,500 km 2 mass of granite hills and valleys hosts one of the richest areas for raptors known in Africa. Again, we will need to assess change on the recently invaded study area and try to develop strategies to mitigate damage.
Relatively little work has been done on raptor communities, especially in the developing world where such work is essential to better understand biodiversity and its conservation. With a reasonable number of volunteers, including some very keen and competent naturalists, in Zimbabwe we have been able to produce some useful work on raptor communities. In an upcoming Special Edition of Honeyguide (the journal of Birdlife Zimbabwe) we present four papers with a community ecology component. One entitled "Raptor diversity and abundance in the Save Conservancy" describes a raptor community in possibly the richest area of Zimbabwe, where 51 species of diurnal raptors and 10 species of owls have been recorded. This paper will prove instructive for landowners and safari operators in the conservancy. Hopefully the information will enhance the already considerable efforts to conserve the area which also hosts a wonderful variety of wildlife, from African elephant to lion, rhinoceros, cape buffalo, and leopard plus cheetah, wild dog, and a plethora of antelope.
The ecology of small to medium-sized mammals is fascinating in terms of predation, providing food for eagles such as Crowned, Black, Martial, Tawny, and African Hawk Eagles and also for lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, serval and caracal, and rock python. This ecosystem also hosts a particularly high density of Crowned Eagles which prey on a variety of species from rock monitors (a very large lizard), monkeys, rock rabbits (hyraxes), and small to medium-sized antelopes, including three quarter-grown bushbuck and impala. While a key part of our job is to highlight the plight of threatened and endangered species and try to improve the lot of threatened habitats, it is equally vital that we identify ecological hot spots and save them from destruction.
Already in the Save Conservancy there have been significant land invasions, with serious poaching and habitat destruction. I experienced first hand the threatening behavior of land invaders while we were monitoring Crowned Eagles in the Save Conservancy in April. A band of land invaders harassed a land owner, throwing stones at his vehicle and assaulting some of his laborers. We met him on the road after he had just arrested some poachers with a freshly snared kudu bull and he told us to "take cover!" From horseback I could see the advancing party, a threatening crowd, several of which were ex-guerilla fighters from the country's civil war in the 1970s. We took his advice and beat a hasty retreat. Later, we heard that the mob dispersed without further incident, despite the fact that the poachers were turned in to the police.
As Oscar Mitumbili, a lobbyist in government for the conservancies says, "At the current rate of destruction within the conservancies the future is not looking very well. Whilst government has stated that they are "no go" areas, the reality on the ground is far from it. The compounding problem in the lowveld is that factionalism means that there are a lot of reports that never reach Harare (the capital city), whilst those that do are treated with much suspicion. Ed Kadzombe (colleague and fellow environmentalist) has been very instrumental in trying to bring to the fore the real issues on the ground. The historical mistrusts between the surrounding communities and the conservancies do not make things any better. For the sake of wildlife in this country I hope sanity will prevail."
Just 60 km south of the Save Conservancy is the magnificent 480 km 2 Malilangwe Conservation Trust reserve which also hosts the "big five" (African elephant, cape buffalo, lion, leopard, and wild dog) and which is very rich in raptors, including 26 pairs of eagles nesting in just 40 km 2 of hills, one of the most dense assemblages of large raptors anywhere. This reserve supports some vital research programs, including ours on the raptor community, which contribute to a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of vegetation, soils, climate, and other ecological parameters on populations of medium to large mammals. This state-of-the-art technology is being used to better manage the wildlife resources of the conservancy.
It will be a very great tragedy if these conservation areas, including Save Conservancy and Malilangwe, are lost to land invaders. They are important parts of the innovative Peace Park program of southern Africa, integral to a park called the Kruger/Banhine-Zinave/Gonarezhou Reserve which consists of 95, 712 km 2 , including national parks, private land, and communal lands. All stakeholders are intended to benefit from these protected areas, including rural communities in Zimbabwe's unique CAMPFIRE program. In such areas, conservancies have demonstrated that more money can be made by everyone from wildlife and tourism than from subsistence agriculture. They have been a key element in the success of biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe. We hope that our role in conservation of raptors can help return Zimbabwe to its former status as one of Africa's leading wildlife conservation areas.