Who is to blame?
a total of 198 incidents of wildlife conflict incidents were throughout the country.
Zimparks acting spokesman Mr Simukai Nyasha told Sunday News that most reports received were on lions (43), followed by hippo (40), elephants (37), crocodiles (35), buffaloes (25), hyenas and zebras both had (7), leopards (3) and the least was bush pigs (1).
He said human and wildlife conflict during this period resulted in the loss of 21 human lives, 16 people were killed by crocodiles and 4 people were killed by elephants while 1 person was killed by buffalo.
Zimparks also received 16 reports of humans that were injured by wildlife. These included 5 people injured by crocodiles, 3 people injured by hippos, 5 people injured by buffaloes and 3 people injured by leopards.
During the same period, a total of 131 livestock were killed by lions, hyenas, leopards and crocodiles.
Livestock killed included 68 cattle, 6 donkeys and 57 goats.
“According to the reports received, most of the livestock losses were due to lion predation with 64 cattle, 4 donkeys and 42 goats being killed by lions and therefore 110 livestock deaths out of 131 deaths were caused by lions.
“Human and wildlife conflicts reports received countrywide reveals that elephants, zebras, hippopotamus, buffaloes and bush pigs are causing crop damage in agricultural communal areas adjacent to wildlife areas,” said Mr Nyasha.
He added that as part of efforts to ensure there was peaceful co-existence, Zimparks have established human and wildlife conflict contact persons in hotspot areas and a dedicated team at each park which deals with problem animals called the Problem Animal Control (PAC) Unit. “As soon as a report is made, the reaction team will respond. Zimparks is also doing awareness programmes teaching people on animal behaviour with the ultimate goal of helping reduce human-wildlife conflict,” he said.
Zimparks, he added, was engaging researchers to explore ways of mitigating against human and wildlife conflict.
Environment expert who is Environment Africa country director Mr Barnabas Mawire said the disharmony between human and animals was becoming more pronounced now because of the increase in population and the fight over land which was a fixed resource.
He said there was need to strike a balance where affected communities at least get some form of compensation so that they do not completely divorce themselves from protecting the wildlife.
We live in a world of continuous changes. Change is a fact of life. But changes create fears and insecurity as well as challenges and possibilities. Problems confronting Zimbabwe are very complex and deeprooted in history and my contention this week is that Zimbabwe is poor and still developing primarily because it has failed to respond effectively and timely to changes, challenges and opportunities in the domestic and global market places. We have failed because we still lack the requisite capabilities, the political will, or both, to effectively respond to the changes, challenges and opportunities that have confronted the country in the course of its modern history — we are expert global conformists.
For various reasons we have failed to participate in these changes and exchanges in the global market places of goods and services, of ideas and new ways of doing things because we have always read from a script we didn’t participate in writing — we clearly will never understand it no matter how much we fabricate our enthusiasm and expressions in acting.
For us, the story dates back to more than three decades when we were slaves in our own land until the Europeans gave us the impression that we are independent using their script. Little did we understand then, except a few of the luminaries who have been pegged with bad names by BBC,CNN and even some of our sponsored people to taint them as “primitive oppression machines” just because they tore some pages of the colonial script imposed on us — that was the stage of spitting on Rhodes’ grave. These are what I call in this piece — The first generation of Zimbabwe’s leadership.
These leaders were the product of colonial governance. We can best understand the paucity of them with the requisite capability, integrity, vision, commitment and will power to lead Zimbabwe towards its rebirth by briefly revisiting the manner by which they were recruited during the colonial period. We need to understand the environment and conditions in which the first generation of these leaders emerged.
The system made them It is important to have a balanced perspective. These leaders were creatures of the times. They were both victims and beneficiaries of the exigencies of the Cold War and decolonisation. There was so much expected of them; and they expected so much for themselves. They were subjected to the conventional wisdom and the buzzwords of the nascent development community of that period.
The same thing is taking place today. New buzzwords are flying around and globally driven market forces are all impacting on Zimbabwe and young leaders have to respond to them.
Time changes, opportunities come and go and circumstances are never repeated; and if they do appear to be repeated they may not respond to similar strategies. As Rhodes’ ancestor, Shakespeare put it: “Time and tide waits for no man or person”. Each situation is a combination of continuity and change; the old and tested, and the unfamiliar yet to be tested — and these are the emergent cabal attempting to make inroads to the continuity of our liberation struggles which are far from over. Some were created, some are being I would like to believe that there were two types of leaders: those created and supported by the colonial authorities, like many of our young people branded by YALI, FES, Mandela Fellowship, and numerous scholarships which take them to the United States and European tours; and those who emerged among the people to lead the struggle against colonial rule and for independence — just like some who are critical of how a colonial culture is hegemonically maintained through “cheese snares” (hotel residence and air travelled youth conventions). The latter came to be generally known as “African nationalists”
“There is a need for both parties to work on the attitudes and perceptions towards each other. The communities should be involved in the work of protecting the wildlife. A situation where they believe the wildlife is causing poverty among them should not be allowed because in such a scenario they can work together with poachers to trap and kill wildlife.
“There is need for engagement where Zimparks engages the community. You will find that they know more about animal movements and animal behaviour — their routes and corridors — more than what most people think and if they are not happy they are very easy to be corrupted and used by people with sinister motives,” said Mr Mawire.
He added that apart from community projects such as roads, clinics and halls, Campfire should at least do some evaluation with a view to fairly compensate the affected villagers to give them a feeling of ownership.
He said the general idea where rural Africans have little sympathy for wildlife and see animals purely in terms of their meat value and where they consider wildlife, particularly large mammals, as threats to their safety and food security could only be rectified through campaigns aimed at making them appreciate the value of wildlife not only to them but to future generations.
“This adverse perception is particularly strong near protected areas where the presence of wildlife populations inflicts daily costs on local communities, which can erode local support and tolerance. A negative attitude towards reserves and wildlife exacerbates conflict and undermines conservation efforts,” added Mr Mawire.
Hwange Rural District Chief Executive Officer Mr Phindile Ncube concurred that the main cause of human-wildlife conflict worldwide was the competition between growing human populations and wildlife for the same declining living spaces and resources.
He said the transformation of forests, and other ecosystems into agrarian areas or urban agglomerates as a consequence of the increasing demand for land, food production, energy and raw materials, has led to a dramatic decrease in wildlife habitats.
He said the other issue was the over commercialisation by Zimparks and forestry where they were giving out land for conservancies, lodges and other activities without due diligence to the effects of it on peaceful co-existence between people and wildlife.
The implications, he said, are that the animal habitant was disturbed and they then move out and attack communities’ livestock.
He said there is need to go back to the drawing board and re-look at the settlement patterns, re-gazette parts of forestry and check on how best harmony could be created.
“I believe there should be a deliberate Government policy to de-commercialise these heavily commercialised areas under forestry and Zimparks. There is no problem in promoting eco-tourism but I believe we should do so without necessarily being greedy.
“Careful planning is required where resettlement patterns are revisited so that we at least minimise on the incidences of human wildlife conflicts. As it is there is little effort one can put to avert the cases,” said Mr Ncube.
According to Zimparks, one of the main consequences of the loss of habitats is the decrease in natural resources available for wildlife. The destruction of natural vegetation around protected areas and in some cases the total disappearance of buffer zones force wild animals to feed in cultivated fields and community livestock.