Zimbabwe illegal occupiers destroy animal reserve
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By ANGUS SHAW
The Associated Press
Friday, September 24, 2010; 7:23 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Illegal occupiers on an animal reserve in southern
Zimbabwe have killed hundreds of animals and torn down several miles
(kilometers) of protective fencing, a conservation group said Friday.
Investigators of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force who visited the
reserve near the southern border town of Beit Bridge and the Limpopo river
reported the occupiers slaughtered 300 zebra for their skins in the last two
months. Seven African antelope were killed this week.
The group said the owner of the reserve won a court order to evict the
occupiers but it was ignored.
Four miles (7 kilometers) of specialized 16-strand game fencing – 70 miles
(112 kilometers) of wire in all – were stolen to make animal traps and
snares, the group said.
“It is tragic. Authorities have failed to enforce the judicial order and the
slaughter is ongoing,” said Johnny Rodrigues, head of the task force.
The population of zebra in the formerly private run wildlife conservancy
dropped from about 870 to just 160 – a loss of 710 animals – the group said.
Nearly 560 eland, Africa’s largest antelope, have also been killed, it said.
Investigators saw zebra skulls lined up along a path and suspected the skins
were smuggled to neighboring South Africa where poaching syndicates operate.
Wildebeest, also known as the gnu with its ox-like head and a horse-like
mane, were slaughtered too, they said.
The occupiers claimed to be members of a Zhove Conservancy Cooperative but
it was not a genuinely registered group. Investigations showed it comprised
mostly of loyalists of President Robert Mugabe’s party and local officials
engaged in often violent seizures of white-owned land for the past decade.
Rodrigues said 480 acres (200 hectares) of trees, standing for some 300
years, were burnt down and the low rainfall area was only suitable for
wildlife.
“The ecosystem there is now so fragile that if the land is tilled the soil
will end up in the river” nearby, he said.