Transfrontier conservancy hit by rampant poaching
By Alex Bell
11 July 2011
The Zimbabwe section of the world’s largest inter-regional conservation park
has been hit by rampant poaching, with at least 20 elephants being
slaughtered in recent months.
The Gonarezhou National Park, which is part of the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Conservation Area, has seen an alarming upsurge in
cross-border poaching of elephants. Late last year ten elephants were killed
in Gonarezhou and at least six more are said to have been killed in the same
area, in the last month alone.
SW Radio Africa has been sent shocking images of the slaughter of elephants
in the Chiredzi River Conservancy, which is set to form part of the planned
Transfrontier ‘Peace Park’. The images show two elephants that were
butchered for their tusks last month. One was an adult bull, and the other
was a young cow with a very small calf. It’s not clear if the calf has
survived.
(The images can be viewed by following this link:
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/poachers070711.pdf )
SW Radio Africa has been told that the poaching is connected to infighting
within ZANU PF, with top ‘chefs’ fighting to take over whatever remaining
assets the country has left. Wildlife conservancies across the country have
reportedly been invaded by hordes of people, working under top party
officials, and the result is a devastating level of poaching.
In May it emerged in a report that ZANU PF is linked to a complex,
international syndicate that is specialising in the trafficking and poaching
of Zimbabwe’s wildlife. According to a report published by the Daily News
newspaper, the ZANU PF officials are part of an “intricate web of
international trafficking in wildlife that has raised the hackles of animal
lovers and wildlife conservationists.”
The party’s involvement has been revealed in the ongoing case against a
group dubbed the “Musina Mafia,” which is believed to be Africa’s biggest
rhino, elephant and lion poaching syndicate. Eleven members of the group
were arrested last year and are facing charges of poaching, illegal gun
possession and other crimes, in the border town Musina. Their boss, a South
African citizen named Dawie Groenewald, has connections with top ZANU PF
officials who have been implicated in poaching rings since before 2003.
Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told
SW Radio Africa on Monday that the involvement of top ZANU PF officials is
well known. He explained that it is all connected to the party’s land grab
scheme, “and the only objective that I can see is greed.”
“The easy way of getting rid of the conservationists to take the land, is to
intimidate. And the poaching is a clear intimidatory tactic. So they are
using the animals to achieve their objective,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues continued by saying that the breakdown of the rule of law in
Zimbabwe means there is no accountability and no way of enforcing any
protection laws.
“Its going to get much worse before it gets better. If we don’t put a stop
to it the sad truth is we will see the extinction of these animals here,”
Rodrigues said.
Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has revealed that nearly 200
rhinos were killed in South Africa in the first half of 2011, with most
slaughtered in the world-famous Kruger National Park. The group said in a
statement that South Africa lost 193 rhinos in the first six months of the
year, with 126 of them killed in Kruger. Last year a record 333 rhinos were
killed in South Africa, which is home to about 70 percent of the world’s
rhino population.
“Poaching is being undertaken almost without exception by sophisticated
criminals, sometimes hunting from helicopters and using automatic weapons,”
said Joseph Okori, WWF’s African rhino programme coordinator. “South Africa
is fighting a war against organised crime that risks reversing the
outstanding conservation gains it made over the past century.”