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Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
THE United States ban on the export of trophies is promoting poaching in Hwange and surrounding areas, a cabinet minister has said.
Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, told Parliament on Wednesday that the US ban was also depriving local communities of resources.
“The United States ban on the exportation of trophies is also promoting a lot of poaching within the Gwayi area and also within Hwange National Park. Surrounding communities lose their crops to these wild animals.
“The ban is depriving communities with the much needed resources and starving our conservation and preservation programmes,” said Muchinguri-Kashiri.
She said, for example, one elephant costs $120,000 in sport hunting which could be ploughed into developing infrastructure, assisting communities in paying school fees and buying food.
The Minister was responding to a question on revenue inflows into the tourism industry following the death of Cecil the lion in Hwange.
Muchinguri-Kashiri said following the death of Cecil the lion, her Ministry carried out investigations on activities taking place in that area and decided to impose a ban on trophy exportation ahead of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, (CITES) next year.
“As a result of the killing of Cecil the lion, there was so much outcry, not only here in Zimbabwe but internationally, over a lion that we had taken care of for 13 years, only to be lost to a hunt from a bow and arrow.
“We therefore, decided as a Ministry to carry out investigations to establish the activities that were taking place in that area.
“We also looked at the involvement of the communities in the area in poaching and also illegal activities that were taking place,” she said.
“The Ministry also looked at the porous border which covers the Zambezi River. At the moment it’s almost 20 percent full and many poachers are crossing the river into Hwange National Park.
“As a Ministry, we were having problems of conservation and preservation and we carried out investigations to establish what was happening in the Gwayi area.
“As a stop gap measure, we imposed a temporary hunting ban which was subsequently followed by a ban on trophy exportation from Zimbabwe.”
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