Hwange’s elephants in the crosshairs
Recent mass cyanide poisoning in one of Africa’s finest national parks has highlighted a wilderness under stress from both poaching and hunting
THERE are many ways to kill an elephant in Zimbabwe — it just takes money and the right contacts. The poisoning of more than 100 elephants in Hwange National Park has overshadowed officially sanctioned hunting that allows the clients of professional hunters (many of them South African) to bag trophies in the park. Added to poaching with snares, guns and now cyanide, and the stress of water scarcity, the park’s elephants are heading deeper and deeper into trouble.
Setting up a hunt in Hwange took two phone calls. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority’s hunting licences division gave me the name of a Gweru professional hunter named Thomas Chimedza, who said he could get me a trophy bull in the park for $5 500 (about R65 000) plus $200 a day on a 10-day hunt. When I asked why it took 10 days to find an elephant, he said there were many but we needed to look for a big bull.
This is far more affordable than a regular safari in the Matetsi Game Reserve just north of Hwange, where an elephant hunt is said to cost at least $30 000. The prices have been pushed up by a total ban on hunting in Botswana.
Shooting elephants in Hwange and other Zimbabwe parks is now legal. Chimedza would apply for a ration permit to supply meat to parks staff or maybe a problemanimal control permit to hunt in adjoining areas under Zimparks. After that we would meet and head into the bush. According to national parks guidelines, only nontrophy animals with tusks under 30kg could be hunted. But for a few extra dollars?
Zimparks nets about $380 000 a year from ration hunting, which translates into 69 elephants. With an average elephant weight of 5 000kg, that totals 345 454kg. Subtract half for bone weight and you have 172 727kg of meat. It makes for very well-fed park staff. But according to a conservationist, it is probably feeding the police and army as well. This is good revenue for the park — if it does not get absorbed into head office in Harare, as park staff claim it does.
“Allowing commercial hunting in our parks has opened up a can of
Allowing commercial hunting in our parks has opened up a can of worms
worms,” said an official who asked not to be named. “When it began five years ago, hunters were shooting animals off the game drive roads, but it became too blatant so they were given areas away from tourists.
“The other day I saw a Joburgregistered hunting vehicle with 10 dogs on the back. They pot anything — sable, bushbuck, buffalo and elephants. When I see a South African hunting vehicle I have an urge to slash its tyres.”
The line between permit hunting and poaching is becoming increasingly blurred. Until recently, communities south of Hwange managed sustainable hunting in which certain trophy animals were sold to hunters and the money distributed to the locals.
According to conservationist Johnny Rodrigues, communities used to make money from selling game meat, but they have been shut out of the business by safari owners. In addition, land invasions in community conservancies have loosened community control and inducements to poach from syndicates — said to include members of Zimbabwe’s large Chinese community — have increased.
Following the cyanide poisoning of the elephants, the new environment, water and climate minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, ordered park and conservation personnel to do aerial surveys and arrest the poachers. Five culprits received stiff jail sentences and four police detectives were held for soliciting bribes from the syndicate.
Kasukuwere described the poaching ring as “a well-organised syndicate that includes locals, middlemen and financiers based outside the country”.
Zimparks has recalled former game rangers and specialised antipoaching support staff to boost the number of personnel on the ground.
According to conservationist Colin Bell, the minister and parks staff need to be commended on their strong and uncompromising reaction. “Kasukuwere set up an advisory trust of respected and well-known conservationists and businessmen to advise and help in Hwange, and the results are already coming in,” he said.
But the Standard newspaper in Zimbabwe claims there are “tigers and flies” in the cyanide issue and that Kasukuwere’s net is targeting the flies — villagers used by powerful politicians to poison the elephants on their behalf.
“There are five ministers [names supplied] implicated in this saga, but it’s difficult to nail them down because they have used threats and money to cover their tracks,” according to its news editor, Caiphas Chimhete.
Thamsanqa Mahlangu, the MDC-T’s spokesman on the environment and natural resources, alleged that the poachers were connected to well-known senior Zanu-PF members, Zimparks officials and police officers.
Wildlife conservationist David Peddie says a major threat to animals and the environment in Hwange is the close alliance between Chinese operations in the area and some well-connected officials. “Joint Chinese-Zimbabwe interests have been given coal and other mining concessions in the area northeast of the park,” said Peddie.
“This has created a major water
Joint Zimbabwe and Chinese interests have been given coal and other mining concessions close by
and air pollution hazard in the Hwange town area and could be a threat to the tourism industry if the proposed Gwayi coal and power project goes ahead. The ownership of the Matetsi hunting concessions [north of the park] by some of the same people is part of the issue.”
Trying to work out the sustainable number of elephants in any area is a moving target that involves counts, calculations of their impact and management through the opening and closing of water holes or culls. Surveys of numbers require expensive aerial counts or on-the-ground estimates.
According to Zimparks, the country has more than 100 000 elephants — 45 000 in Hwange alone — but no reliable counts have been conducted for a decade. Conser- vationists I spoke to claimed that to be a “hunter’s count” and estimated Hwange to have about 25 000 and declining. This is in line with an international situation that has seen the world’s elephant population of 10 million in 1900 fall to about 460 000 today.
Zimbabwe has 50 tons of stockpiled ivory and claims that its sale will fund anti-poaching efforts. But legal trading in ivory, supported by a strong market lobby, has in the past proved devastating for elephants. In 1989, all international trade in ivory was banned. Eight years later, after pressure from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species “downlisted” elephant protection and allowed a one-off sale of ivory stockpiles from these countries. In 2008, it approved another stockpile sale.
Two reports, Making a Killing by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Blood Ivory by the Environmental Investigation Agency, have highlighted the tragedy of the decision to legalise trade.
Following the sales, poaching escalated to a point where the future of elephants is now in doubt. On average, an elephant is poached every 15 minutes.
In the same way that legal sales increased the demand for ivory in 1989 and 2008, permit elephant hunting in Zimbabwe’s parks feeds that demand and creates loopholes for illegal hunting and, ultimately, for poaching.
The author of this piece wishes to remain anonymous
For more information see www.conservationaction.co.za