adminThe ecological disaster that recently afflicted Hwange National Park in the wake of the cyanide poisoning of salt pans and watering holes while the work of heartless poachers is yet another manifestation of the effects of the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime that affected Parks and Wildlife Management’s capacity to police the vast park.
Hwange National Park is Africa’s third largest game reserve after Serengeti National Park of Kenya and Tanzania and South Africa’s Kruger National Park but the resources at its disposal after over a decade of sanctions are for the likes of Harare’s Mbizi Game Park of Mukuvisi Woodlands.
Some numbers will suffice here.
The vast park spans 14 650km², roughly the size of Switzerland and is much bigger than the likes of Luxembourg which is at 1597,76km².
Whereas Hwange National Park needs to operate with 500 rangers, it has a paltry 50 poorly equipped rangers.
Hwange does not even have helicopters which are critical for surveillance, and the fleet consists of mainly non-runner vehicles.
This poor state of affairs has been a God-send for poachers who now relish the opportunity of “harvesting’’ the park’s elephant population that also ballooned to 45 000 herd against a carrying capacity of 14 600, again due to poor monitoring.
Thus the question we pose to the sanctions imposing countries that love portraying themselves as nature lovers is, what crime did our flora and fauna commit to warrant such cruel strangulation?
Whereas you decimated your wildlife which is now only found in zoos or mummified in museums, we have maintained our own in their natural habitats.
In the absence of the sanctions regimes we had a sound wildlife management system that enabled us to counter poaching and keep both track of and take stock of our resources but your sanctions threaten all that.
Hwange is a case in point and exposes your ridiculous claims that the sanctions are targeted at the Zanu-PF leadership.
The last time we checked there were no elephants in the Zanu-PF Politburo, Central Committee or Cell.
Whereas we could easily ascertain the effects of the sanctions on tourist arrivals, we have done precious little to assess the impact of sanctions on tourist facilities.
We urge the relevant ministries and Government departments to assess the damage wrought to the facilities and compile a dossier to buttress the lawsuit filed by Government against these sanctions imposing countries.
As we report elsewhere in this issue, three of the poachers behind the ecological disaster were hit with 16-year-jail terms and up to US$600 000 restitution; it’s high time those who created conditions for their heinous activities were also taken to account.
It is high time we belled the cat.
Online Reporter