Online Reporter
Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
GOVERNMENT is developing a National Human-Wildlife Coexistence Strategy aimed at reducing growing conflicts between communities and wildlife while ensuring conservation delivers greater economic benefits to people living alongside protected areas.
Officially opening the National Human-Wildlife Coexistence Strategy Development Workshop in Harare on Thursday, Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister Evelyn Ndlovu said human-wildlife conflict remained one of the country’s biggest conservation and development challenges.
Her speech was read on her behalf by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Mr Simon Masanga.
“Human-wildlife conflict remains one of the most pressing conservation and development challenges facing our country,” she said.
“It affects families, undermines livelihoods, threatens food security and, if left unaddressed, can erode public confidence in conservation itself.”
Minister Ndlovu said Government was committed to ensuring that communities living alongside wildlife benefit from conservation through the biodiversity economy.
“As Government, we remain committed to ensuring that no community bears the burden of conservation without sharing fairly in its benefits,” she said.
“True coexistence can only be achieved when conservation delivers tangible improvements in people’s lives.”
Minister Ndlovu said the strategy was anchored on the recently enacted Parks and Wildlife Amendment Act and the National Wildlife Policy, which promote equitable benefit-sharing and community participation in wildlife conservation.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) director-general Professor Edson Gandiwa said Zimbabwe’s growing elephant population and expanding human settlements were intensifying human-wildlife conflict.
“We have between 85 000 and 100 000 elephants and the land is not expanding,” he said.
“The human population is also growing and development activities are also growing. What that means is that we need to be adaptive and responsive to ensure that we deliver for our local people.”
Prof Gandiwa said the challenge has become a regional and global concern, adding that Zimbabwe was strengthening community-based conservation through the CAMPFIRE programme and modern technologies.
He said wildlife attacks claimed 49 lives in 2024, compared to 50 in 2023, with crocodiles responsible for most of the fatalities.
“The persistence of these fatalities shows that there is an urgent need for a practical national strategy that protects communities while safeguarding Zimbabwe’s wildlife heritage,” he said.
