adminThe Herald, December 15, 1992
MORE game scouts should be brought into the intensifying anti-poaching war as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, under instructions from President Mugabe, activates more than 250 frozen posts.
Sources within the ministry yesterday said officials within the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management were seeing what posts had to be resuscitated or created to deal with with increased poacher incursions from Zambia.
It had been hoped that with the dehorning of the black rhino since June, poaching would die away: but more are coming into the country.
Poachers’ incursions were reported to be on the increase along the Zambezi Valley, averaging at least three a week in a bid to beat the dehorning exercise.
A few local poachers have also joined in the race for rhino horns, although most rhino are killed by foreigners. However, the local criminals force National Parks to guard a far longer front.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Anti-poaching has been a consistent theme in conservation policy in Zimbabwe.
The need to ‘protect’ wildlife from certain forms of utilisation has resulted in presser-vationist legislation and this allowed the state to use coercive powers against those who sought to exploit wildlife without state approval.
The 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act empowered police and national park staff to undertake anti-poaching strategies.
Online Reporter