Zimbabwe, China’s trade in live animals is exploitative
A BIZARRE story has recently come out of Zimbabwe. Grace Mugabe, the politically powerful wife of ageing President Robert Mugabe, has come up with a plan to settle a debt to China with 35 young elephants, eight lions, 12 hyenas and a giraffe.
The debt was incurred in 1998 when Zimbabwe bought equipment from China and sent troops to help President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kabila needed help fighting a rebel movement backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
Zimbabwe’s use of live wildlife as a commodity is nothing new. And it’s not the only country to do so. It is quite common for southern African states to sell what they consider to be surplus animals to zoos or safari parks outside Africa.
Animals are also exported to restock parks or reserves elsewhere on the continent.
The sale of live animals is highly controversial, but not illegal as long as rules established by Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) are followed. These require that live exports only be between two Cites members, and that both parties’ management authorities for Cites ensure that the export permits are valid.
The authorities need to ensure that “the export of the animals would not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild” and that they will be taken “to appropriate and acceptable destinations”.
But the removal of young elephants from their herds – as happened in Zimbabwe – is highly damaging to the animals, and to the herd as a whole.
The Zimbabwean embassy in China has denied the reports of the sale, and there has been no word from the environment minister in Harare. The story will be embarrassing for China at a time when it is basking in praise over its coming ban on ivory retail sales.
One of the concerns raised by NGOs and wildlife activists about the export of live elephants to China is that they will at some stage be farmed, and their ivory harvested to be sold at a huge profit.
There is also concern that animals go to zoos with poor welfare records, or where cruel methods will be used to turn the animals into little more than circus performers.
Zimbabwean ministers and wildlife officials have for years defended the regular sale of elephants and other wildlife to China. They have justified it by saying they need to reduce the numbers in over-stocked reserves and raise funds for conservation. But there is no proof that the money raised goes back into conservation, and clearly using elephants to settle military-related debts also does little for conservation.
The official Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority website justifies live exports as a means of sustainably supporting conservation and reducing pressure on ecosystems.
But while a conservation case may be made quite cogently for limiting numbers, the export of live animals seems more related to profit than sustainable use conservation.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of the Environment, Water and Climate, Oppiah Muchinguri-Kashiri, strongly advocates the sale of animals to raise money. But she doesn’t appear to have a strong grasp of the facts of conservation and the trade in animals or their products. This is evident in how adamant she was that Zimbabwe could sell its ivory stockpile to China despite the Cites decision.
Nevertheless, Zimbabwe is forging ahead with planned sales. Reports from the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force last year said the Zimbabwe Wildlife Department was capturing animals to meet an order from China for 130 elephants and 50 lions.
It is very clear that Zimbabwe’s environment minister and wildlife authorities have no qualms about the questionable trade in live animals.
One destination for Zimbabwean elephants is the widely criticised Chimelong Wildlife Park, which includes a circus and stages a variety of dubious performances and stunts involving its animals.
It is hard to draw a clear line to show where justifiable sustainable use ends and sheer exploitation for profit begins. But it is clear that Zimbabwe and China have crossed that line.
Somerville is a visiting professor from the University of Kent in England