Save Valley Conservancy: Acid test for tourism
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw
Friday, 28 September 2012 11:59
The invasion of Save Valley Conservancy has threatened the tourism sector
which has been on a rebound lately, writes Tinashe Madava
AS the largest wildlife sanctuary in the country, Save Valley Conservancy in
the restive and volatile political province of Masvingo, is a haven for a
variety of animals – the hunter and hunted alike.
From a moneymaking perspective, the rich pickings associated with such a
sanctuary are immense. The tourism safari business has a potential of raking
in a cool US$30 million per hunting season, which normally starts in April
until November, for a country hard-pressed for hard currency.
The United States is the biggest customer of the hunting industry with
trophy exports of 80 percent of total exports per any given hunting season
for Zimbabwe.
So, when Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management, Francis
Nhema issued hunting permits to 25 black farmers allocated plots at the Save
Valley Conservancy in the Lowveld, a storm was bound to erupt because the
area is a cash-cow.
Nhema’s move was seen as detrimental to efforts to rebuild Zimbabwe’s
tourism sector. Yet the Environment Minister had for long been seen as a
moderate in ZANU-PF, far removed from the shenanigans of some of his
colleagues in the liberation war party who have been accused of embracing a
looting culture at the expense of the majority of Zimbabweans.
The local community, conservationists as well as political foes, saw the
parceling out of the Save Valley Conservancy as nothing else but a looting
exercise by a greedy elite within ZANU-PF.
Nhema came under fire for awarding the permits while Tourism Minister,
Walter Mzembi and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) also received flak
for criticising Nhema’s move.
In fact, war veterans besieged Mzembi’s office led by Joseph Chinotimba, one
of the recipients of the hunting permits.
Most of the beneficiaries granted the 25 year leases at the prime wildlife
sanctuary are ZANU-PF politicians and top military officials.
These include Shuvai Mahofa, Stan Mudenge, Titus Maluleke, Lieutenant
Colonel David Moyo, Major General Gibson Mashin-gaidze, Retired Colonel
Claudius Makova, Assistant Commissioner Connel Dube, Major General Engelbert
Rugeje, Brigadier General Livingstone Chineka, and Masvingo Provincial
Intelligence Officer Chibaya.
Health Deputy Minister, Douglas Mombeshora, ZANU-PF central committee
member, Enock Porusingazi, Members of Parliament Ailess Baloyi, Abraham
Sithole, Samson Mukanduri, Noel Mandebvu, Ronald Rundava, war veteran leader
Chinotimba and the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda’s son, Tongai are also
on the list of the controversial recipients.
That this came only four months after a report by the Parliamentary
Committee on Natural Resources had condemned the occupation of the
conservancy has worried many.
Legislators had recommended that conservancies must not be parceled out to
individuals at the expense of whole communities that were earmarked to
benefit in the spirit of indigenisation. They said the Natural Resources
Ministry should award leases through share transfers, joint ventures and
community trusts.
The conservancy engaged with the Ministry of Environment and the Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority over a period of three years between
2006 and 2009 with plans to bring increased benefit to neighbouring
communities as well as to increase indigenous shareholding in the
conservancy.
In a statement last month, the Save Valley Conservancy said it has long held
the view that the indigenisation policy should take the form of community
involvement and benefit and hence formed the Save Valley Conservancy
Comm-unity Trust, incorporating five neighbouring rural district councils.
So, the parliamentary committee had concluded that; “These beneficiaries
were merely imposed on conservators despite assurances from the Ministry of
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment that there was a
transparent system in place to identify indi-genous partners through the
Zimbabwe Inve-stment Authority’s independent board using the databases for
both foreign and local investors.”
With the hunting season running from April to November each year, critics
questioned the wisdom of awarding hunting permits in the middle of the
hunting season. They smelt a rat.
Critics point out that when the conservancy was formed in 1991 with the
approval of the government and the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management
Authority, opportunities to invest were open to all. None of the ZANU-PF
bigwigs came forward.
They therefore questioned the timing of the scramble for Save Conservancy at
a time when watershed elections are expected before June next year. They say
there are elements in ZANU-PF who fear that the party might lose at the
elections and so have embarked on asset grabbing to accumulate wealth before
going out of office.
But reports indicate that the appropriation of the Save Valley Conservancy
has also ushered an era of widespread poaching in the area, especially the
rhino, whose numbers are said to be fast dwindling.
There is extensive habitat destruction as well as large-scale destruction of
the perimeter fence. Conservationists have since raised the red flag as the
saga unfolds.
Added to that, wild animals have been wreaking havoc in some communities
bordering the conservancy after breaching the perimeter fence, which is no
longer being maintained properly.
Reports say lions and elephants are killing livestock and destroying crops
from the communities. Bikita district shares a border of nearly 350
kilometres with the Save Valley Conservancy.
Hyenas, which are carriers of the deadly rabies also cross into the
communities unchecked presenting huge health risks for the livestock in the
area.
Mzembi recently admitted that while the government has not had a wildlife
census to show the impact of the land reform exercise on the economy, the
preoccupation with Save Conservancy should alert authorities that the
wildlife inherited on the farms may already be depleted.
Although President Robert Mugabe has reportedly stepped into the fray and
ordered that all conservancies be turned into National Parks, safeguards
need to be put in place to make sure that such a scenario is not repeated.
In fact, it remains to be seen whether President Mugabe’s directives would
be followed to the later.
Traditional chiefs from the area have pleaded with the President to
intervene amid concerns that communities were being marginalised and
shortchanged through the parceling out of the conservancy.
Thus President Mugabe’s intervention, if it bears fruit, would be greeted
with much gratitude in the area while the party itself and most individuals
implicated in the scramble for the valley will have alienated themselves
from the majority of voters.
Either way, the invasion of Save Valley Conservancy has threatened the
tourism sector, which has been on a rebound lately.
While efforts to limit the damaged are underway, it remains to be seen
whether Save Conservancy itself would quickly recover to regain the shine it
once had as one of the world’s largest wildlife sanctuaries.