SADC urged to speak with one voice on wildlife management

Source: The People's Daily Online (China)

Date: 15 November 2005

Author: Anon

Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have been urged to speak with one voice in finding solutions for sustainable management of wildlife in the region.

The call was made by delegates attending the just ended African Wildlife Conference Forum (AWCF), which ran from November 7 to 10 in Mauritius.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chairperson, Emmanuel Fundira, who attended the forum, said on Tuesday that delegates agreed that solutions to wildlife management should come from Africa and not from outside.

He said discussions at the forum centered on wildlife management, particularly conservation efforts in protecting the elephant.

The forum also sought to come up with different management strategies for Southern Africa, which include culling of the elephants in overpopulated countries such as Zimbabwe.

They called on the involvement of local communities to benefit from such activities.

Fundira commended this move, adding that there was need to reduce Zimbabwe's elephant population which was growing to unsustainable levels.

"We saw this as a sustainable strategy because it addresses issues to do with poverty alleviation and also provides for economic empowerment for the rural folk," he said.

Other issues discussed at the forum included translocation of animals from countries with excess populations to those with marginal ones such as Mozambique.

He said this would enable Zimbabwe to offload surplus elephants and at the same time achieve economic gains.

Meanwhile, participating countries agreed to come up with a code of conduct to regulate the various sectors in the safari industry and improve transparency as well as enhance cooperation among governments.

Each country was requested to come up with a code of conduct to be later harmonized into one code of conduct for Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe was requested for the second year running to chair the elephant management strategy committee.

The Safari Club International convened the annual forum which doubled as a pre-Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) forum where African governments came up with resolutions to be presented at the Cites meeting to be held in September next year in the Netherlands.

SADC countries that attended the meeting include Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.