Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has expressed concern at the increase in entities seeking to carry out mining in national parks, saying this was a threat to their conservation efforts and the tourism industry.
ZimParks corporate secretary, Ms Nyasha Mutyambizi, made the remarks when she appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
“So, people believe that the richest mining deposits are within the Parks areas. So, we have so much pressure, particularly in Matopos for the coal,” she said.
“Everybody wants to come and mine in the parks. This again is putting a lot of pressure because our international tourist markets are now saying how can conservation and mining coexist. Why should we come to Zimbabwe when your laws do not protect animals? Because there are people who are very passionate about animals, and they believe that as a Government, as an Authority, we should be able to stop mining.”
Ms Mutyambizi said despite Government efforts to curb mining in national parks through various legislation, the interest from potential miners remained high.
“So, we are having a lot of pressure and although the Government has put in place some Cabinet resolutions, we are constantly surprised to continue seeing applications going through our colleagues at Ministry of Mines,” she added.
Ms Mutyambizi said they had received complaints and petitions from various quarters that were concerned by the impact of mining on their conservation efforts.
“So, in our mind, we do not understand why these applications are being entertained. And, I think we received, I don’t know how many, hundreds of complaints and petitions from all over the world, from embassies but we seem not to really have that much value for conservation.
“We know that conservation, if we look after our animals, if we look after our areas, we have the potential to generate more money because what conservation does is it does not destroy the environment and we’ll have generations and generations continuing to come and see these areas.
“So we do have a serious problem. But as ZimParks, all we can do is to try and use our own legislation,” she said.
