adminSuch is the situation in Zimbabwe where hell-bent poachers have left littered behind in their wake rotting carcasses of elephants and rhinos — which mean a great deal to the country’s economy and to its fame as a tourist destination with tusks and horns respectively hacked off and spirited away to foreign countries under cloak-and-dagger operations and, rendering the country all the more poorer.
That in just four months from January this year poachers reportedly slaughtered altogether 71 elephants, 11 rhinos, 24 impala and seven buffaloes, is a serious indictment of what appears a shoddy manner in which Zimbabwe goes about protecting her wildlife; otherwise what genuine explanation may be advanced for such losses?
What is worse, to celebrate the importance of the jumbos, the rhinos and the other animals by pinning the value of $4 million on their carcasses certainly leaves a stench in the nose as that potential revenue has rotted away with the dead animals to leave behind skeletons that are worthless to this nation.
Yet had Zimbabweans long been educated and empowered with information about $50 000 as the value of a single adult elephant, and $120 000 as that of the black rhino, there is no doubt all patriotic Zimbabweans would have rallied to the support of Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority in protecting the game as both an endowment from God and a draw-card for the country’s tourism industry.
It is, however, not yet too late for a major paradigm shift in the way in which Zimbabweans relate to wildlife as a natural resource that must be preserved for present generations and as a bequest to future generations, and in its humble opinion Zimparks should take huge, fast steps in turning locals cohabiting with wildlife in various regions of Zimbabwe into game scouts, each one of them.
This can be done effectively through an educational campaign to enhance any existing repertoire of game management and protection strategies with information that will arm Zimbabweans with cocked ears and sharp eyes.
Under such tight security measures it will become near impossible for foreign poachers to infiltrate the country armed with lethal weapons for poaching purposes and recruiting Zimbabweans as accomplices or proxies in their nefarious activities.
But any lackadaisical step in that direction to seal any existing loopholes that have enabled poachers, who have wiped up big game in their native countries, to breach Zimbabwe’s security cordon around her wildlife reserves could result in our wildlife being dinosaured and our wildlife conservation efforts becoming a proverb to future generations.
As for the poaching of impala and other smaller animals for the pot to enhance the family nutritional value — this may be understandable though not necessarily condoned.
On a more serious dimension, Zimbabwe might wish to step up closer and much more rigorous co-operation with her neighbours to prevent cross-border poaching by human predators some of whom have been fatally shot or nearly so in encounters with our game rangers.
In fact, Sadc countries should cooperate in anti-poaching operations in the same way as they work together in economic and other security matters.
When potential poachers become aware of the risks faced intruding into other countries, chances are they will think twice and resort to less perilous adventures for a living.
It is all very well for wildlife management authorities in Zimbabwe to talk about the rhino horns not being found to contain any medicinal properties for which the animal has for many years been poached.
True, replicated research may have come up with some evidence, but that information should not be taken as a deterrence to the danger that rhinos continue to face in Zimbabwe and in other countries as well as from poachers wrongly or correctly fed information that the rhino horn is used in some Asian countries, for instance, as an aphrodisiac.
That the foreign market for the rhino horn continues to thrive can only suggest that the demand is impelled by a valid knowledge of the benefit to be derived from that much sought-after animal by poachers.
It is said that dagger-handles are also made from ivory whose other uses must be numerous and varied.
The bottom line of the above discourse is that Zimbabweans and their wildlife must strike a symbiotic relationship for their mutual existence.
Online Reporter