Zimbabwe Elephant Conservation comes at High Cost

Date: 25 August 2002

Source: http://www.wildlifetravel.net/

Author: Anon

Johannes Miyozi, a wildlife scout in the Nyaminyami Rural District in Zimbabwe, is no stranger to wildlife because daily he contends with the threat posed by a large wild animal population jostling with humans for limited living space.

He has spent his entire 33 years in the Nyaminyami, a remote area in the northwest of Zimbabwe , in a community that has learned to co-exist with wildlife, thanks to the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), which encourages sustainable use of natural resources in rural areas.

But for Miyozi's village, co-existence with the area's wildlife population has come at a high price. Twenty-one people living adjacent to Matusadona National Park were killed by elephants last year alone, he says.

The community is one of several rallying behind Zimbabwe's fight to have its ballooning elephant population remain on appendix two of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which allows hunting and limited trade in ivory and other elephant products.

Although Zimbabwe 's elephants are presently on CITES' appendix two, the country is not allowed to trade in ivory and has accumulated significant stocks.

Zimbabwe has 89,000 elephants, twice its environmental carrying capacity which is leading to widespread environmental destruction and desertification. But Zimbabwe will still face demands to upgrade the animals to appendix one, which outlaws trade in elephant products, at the next CITES meeting in Santiago , Chile , in November.

"What the people are saying is that hunting quotas should be increased and the communities should be allowed to benefit from legal ivory exports because the ivory is from natural mortality and not from poaching," Miyozi told reporters during a tour of the area two weeks ago.

Communities near the huge Hwange National Park are also calling for an increase in elephant hunting quotas, saying the present allocations are too small compared to the destruction that is wreaked by elephants in the area.

Michael Mathe, a councilor for Hwange rural district council noted: "The quota is too little for the community to benefit compared to the destruction we are enduring. What the people are saying is that the government should cull more of these animals so that the pressure we are facing may be reduced. We are not saying the animals should be killed at will, but we have more than we can manage."

Hwange National Park has 49,000 elephants which roam freely in nearby communal areas, destroying crops in the fields. In the 2001/2002 agricultural season, which has been hard hit by drought, elephants destroyed more than 90% of villagers' crops but communities were only permitted an annual hunting quota of six elephants.

"Those people who are against us trading in ivory should come and stay with us for only 30 days if they are serious about this," Mathe said. "Then I think from there they can appreciate why we are saying the hunting quotas should be increased and why we want to trade in ivory."

Zimbabwe 's proposal, which will be considered at the CITES meeting, involves the one-off sale of 10 tons of ivory and a subsequent annual quota of not more than five tons.

The money generated from the proposed ivory sales would be used to enhance elephant conservation, assist dirt-poor communities co-existing with the elephants and manage the country's accumulating ivory stocks.

Zimbabwe last made a one-off export of 19.8 tons of ivory worth US $79 million to Japan in 1998, of which 6.2 tons was from CAMPFIRE. Since then, Zimbabwe has accumulated 18 tons of ivory from natural mortality.

The Santiago meeting comes at a time when Zimbabwean officials in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, are acknowledging the increased poaching on wildlife producing farms. They noted that the problem was not on a commercial scale and did not affect the endangered animals.

However, there are fears that the rampant poaching could hamper Zimbabwe's efforts to keep elephants on CITES' appendix two. One of the requirements for remaining on appendix two is the effective management of the anti-poaching program.

Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management deputy director Vitalis Chadenga said the CITES battle lines had been drawn, with Kenya and India teaming up to demand the listing of Zimbabwe's elephant population on appendix one.

Southern Africa, which has more than 200,000 elephants, is the only region in the world that has its elephant in appendix two.