Army to launch anti-poaching op

Adelaide Moyo, Chronicle Reporter
THE army will launch a very serious operation to curb poaching as it has become a threat to security, Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has said.

The Minister revealed this during the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Trans-Frontier Conservation Area conference in Victoria Falls which ended yesterday.

Ministers from the five southern African countries that are members of the KAZA Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA): Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, deliberated on ways to curb poaching at the conference.

Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said poachers were sophisticated and as such strategies that match their cunning need to be implemented.

“We’ve now roped in the army and you will see a very serious operation which should send a warning to these poachers that we are now very serious,” said Muchinguri-Kashiri.

“Poaching is a serious security threat; it is actually second to terrorism. As such we need to come up with clever strategies to fight poaching because poachers have become sophisticated that their skills don’t match what we used to have.”

She said Cabinet had resolved that helicopters and drones be deployed to national parks while a wildlife tracking system will be used to monitor animal movements.

“Drones are meant to target poachers who illegally enter the border. As it stands, because of the porous borders, our armed forces cannot patrol these borders and poachers tend to target the border as an easy point of entry,” said Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri.

Drones that cover 40km have been bought and this means that where a hundred rangers were needed, only one drone will be used.

The government is also working with the University of Zimbabwe to have a tracking system.

Speaking at the same occasion, Zambia’s Tourism and Arts Deputy Minister Patrick Ngoma bemoaned the increase in poachers from his country committing crimes in neighbouring countries.

Zimbabwe has been grappling against rampant poaching particularly involving the use of cyanide to poison animals.