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Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent
Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu has said there is urgent need for a global collective effort to step up the fight against wildlife crimes which have corroded the country’s resource base, damaged the economy and degraded ecosystems.
Speaking ahead of the World Wildlife Day commemoration tomorrow, Minister Ndlovu said the Government had reaffirmed its commitment in line with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants did not threaten their survival.
Minister Ndlovu said inasmuch as the country underscored the mutually reinforcing character of the CITES decisions and resolutions and the importance of achieving universal adherence to the convention, they had fundamental differences with CITES on the direction which it was taking, particularly on banning and/or overregulating international trade as opposed to facilitating sustainable international trade.
“In Zimbabwe we believe in strengthening the role of international wildlife trade in the global economy as a way of uplifting the living standards of rural communities which co-exist with wildlife,” he said.
“It would be collective policy mistake to ban international wildlife trade as that would leave the poor even poorer and would be a stunning reversal of sustainable use gains which lifted a lot of people out of extreme poverty in Africa. This is because communities are dependent on wildlife for various economic, spiritual and cultural activities.
“We are disappointed that we cannot trade in our elephant ivory and live elephants due to CITES restrictions. We still argue that the restrictions are not based on science and ignore the socio-economic realities of communities who live adjacent to wildlife rich Protected Areas and lose life, livestock and crops every year to wildlife.”
Minister Ndlovu said the Constitution provides a clear legal basis for the active inclusion of local communities in wildlife management.
“Section 13(4) of the Constitution states that “the state must ensure that local communities benefit from the resources in their areas”. This makes community inclusion a rights issue, hence, the Government has since responded by reviewing the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) as well as reviewing the Parks and Wildlife Act (Chapter 20:14) and the wildlife policy to ensure community empowerment and inclusion.”
He also said wildlife conservation played a key role to Zimbabwe’s prospects of achieving Vision 2030 as it is a major component of our tourism industry.
“Zimbabwe’s current economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy (NDS) 1 (2021–2025) goals include promoting fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from utilisation of genetic resources and promoting access to such benefits as internationally agreed; and taking steps to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products.
“The World Wildlife Day reminds us of the need to have coordinated domestic, regional and international responses to combat the growing poaching scourge. It is generally agreed that developing countries harbour some of the world’s most outstanding biodiversity and funding for the protection of the same is the biggest sticking point between developed and developing countries.”
Minister Ndlovu said through close partnerships and cooperation with several organisations including the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), African Parks, they were providing local communities with alternative livelihoods, reducing human wildlife conflict as well building local enterprises to include as part of community empowerment.
Online Reporter