US$15m windfall for Gonarezhou

George Maponga in Masvingo

The wildlife-rich Gonarezhou National Park in the south-east Lowveld has received a major shot in the arm after an international organisation, Legacy Landscapes Fund(LLF) unveiled a US$1 million annual windfall covering the next 15 years to aid the conservation thrust by maintaining the wildlife habitat as a biodiversity haven.

The windfall by LLF will start being drawn down this year running over the next 15 years by which time Gonarezhou is expected to have become a legacy protected area for the benefit of future generations.

Gonarezhou,which is famous for it’s high elephant population,is benefiting under the LLF facility together with North Luangwa National Park in Zambia.

LLF hopes to have created about 30 legacy projects including Gonarezhou,around the globe by 2030.

Elephant-rich Gonarezhou was chosen owing to its unique landscape flagshiped by the iconic Chilojo cliffs along Runde River,expansive and diverse Woodlands including picturesque rivers that bisect the habitat.

Currently, Gonarezhou is being managed under a partnership between Zimparks and the Frankfurt Zoological Society under the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust(GCT) banner.

GCT has been involved in efforts to boost biodiversity Protection in Gonarezhou and also combating poaching by engaging communities in buffer areas to appreciate the importance of preserving wildlife.

The trust’s spokesperson Mr Marlven Mrehwa yesterday said the windfall from LLF would boost biodiversity protection in the park. He noted that Gonarezhou would boost its security thanks to the war chest from LLF to protect endangered species such as black rhinoceros that were reintroduced last year.

“The LLF board approved US$1 million annual funding for Gonarezhou National Park and this funding will continue for the next 15 years with the initial drawdown expected this year(2022),”he said.

“The funding from LLF will be handy in the whole matrix of conservation from payment of rangers and equipping them to look after wildlife.”

Mr Mrehwa also disclosed that the funding will also benefit communities in the park’s buffer zone through financing projects that will help them appreciate peaceful co-existence with wildlife.

Such projects will include drilling boreholes for potable water supply and irrigation of smallholder gardens,building schools and repairing roads in the park’s surroundings.

Mr Mrehwa said LLF funding will also enhance protection of the endangered black rhinoceros that was reintroduced in the park in June last year after 27 years.

Black rhinos disappeared in Gonarezhou in 1994 at time Zimbabwe was battling an insurgency by Renamo bandits in neighbouring Mozambique.

GCT has refused to disclose how many rhinos were reintroduced in the park as a security measure.

Gonarezhou is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park which also includes South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park. The Transfrontier Park is arguably the biggest wildlife habitat in the world in terms of both size and fauna and flora diversity. 

Increasing human/wildlife conflict around most wildlife habitats coupled with the effects of climate change which is behind extinction of some plant and animal species will he abated by initiatives similar to the one from LLF that will benefit Gonarezhou.