Back from the brink

Long before Gonarezhou was a conservation area, elephant hunters shot what they wanted. In the 1960s, to rid the area of tsetse fly – which infected cattle and people with nagana (sleeping sickness) – huge tracts of riverine and ironwood forest were bulldozed. So too were many of the natural pans that had taken centuries to form. Thousands of wild animals were shot, including buck, buffalo and elephant. The land was enclosed with wire fencing and sprayed with pesticides such as dieldrin and DDT. Just as it was finally proclaimed a national park in 1975 and wildlife populations had started rebuilding naturally, the Mozambican civil war began. To feed themselves, soldiers set thousands of snares using wire from the fences. In addition, almost 10 000 elephants were culled over the course of two decades by authorities concerned about habitat damage. The park has an unfenced 110-kilometre border with Mozambique, where nine hunting concessions are interspersed with poor communities desperate for protein. Snare poaching and poisoning used to be rife. Some game farms were placing bait and water close to the boundary, drawing predators, elephants and other wildlife across into Mozambique for safari hunting. Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife receives no subsidies from the government, so revenue from safari tourism is crucial. With dwindling wildlife and visitor numbers, funding had dried up. In 2010, the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) signed an agreement with Zim Parks to support the park for 20 years. The team that had already successfully implemented measures to resuscitate the wilderness were tasked with continuing their good work: conservation manager Hugo van der Westhuizen, his ecologist wife Elsabe, area manager Evious Mpofu and other colleagues from Zim Parks. FZS now pays almost all operational costs: staff salaries, training and rations, vehicles, diesel, aircraft, aerial surveys, vegetation mapping, antipoaching and the construction and maintenance of all roads, fences and tourism facilities. The latest cause for celebration is the recent creation of a trust, made up of both FZS and park officials, that will control Gonarezhou. As trust director, Hugo will have the final say on all park management and tourism infrastructure decisions. And crucially, all tourism money generated (about $400 000 currently) will from now on be invested back into the park. Previously, it had disappeared into central state coffers and Gonarezhou hardly benefitted. ‘This is groundbreaking stuff,’ says Hugo. ‘The park is now run by a true partnership, and it’s up to us entirely to make even more of a success, which I’m confident we will do.’