Jeffrey Gogo Climate Story
FOLLOWING the horrendous death of over 60 elephants at Hwange due to cyanide poisoning in the past five weeks, hardly two years after 300 more elephants were massacred the same way, Zimbabwe requires a deep policy-searching moment: what has gone wrong in managing and protecting wildlife? Why does it seem poachers are always a step ahead of Government departments — Parks and Wildlife Authority, police and public prosecutors?

Poaching has now morphed into a dangerous poisoning game under their watch?

While some arrests have been made, how have individuals managed to gain access to large quantities of cyanide, a chemical whose trade is supposedly tightly controlled in Zimbabwe, without anyone noticing? Poachers are now killing wildlife by poisoning watering holes or salt pans with cyanide, a deadly and fast acting chemical compound commonly used in mining.

By using poison, poachers avoid the risk of a gunshot being overheard by rangers. This is an emerging sophistication in wildlife crime that has got animal lovers greatly worried. Elephants are killed for their ivory, sold for thousands of dollars in a thriving global underworld market. Now, with the cyanide killings seemingly continuing with little restraint, threatening to not only fast-track the extinction of an already endangered species but also obliterate several other wild animals, these questions beg for answers that cannot be found in ministerial delegations flying out to Hwange to see dead animals.

It is now clear the multi-ministerial Cabinet Committee tasked with investigating the 2013 elephants massacre has yet to deliver the policy interventions necessary to curb poaching effectively, particularly the kind of an emerging chemical warfare on wildlife. But that is not to suggest high level responses to ecological disasters should altogether be disbanded.

Zimbabwe must find ways of making such Cabinet Committees highly effective, delivering swift policy, technical and financial interventions that enhance wildlife governance and conservation. Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri last week told the ZTV, that Government will investigate the recent cyanide killings through another Cabinet Committee setup specifically for the latest horror.

For how long will cases of elephant cyanide poisoning continue under investigation? What came out of the investigations carried out by the 2013 Committee? Poachers have unlikely changed tactics since 2013. They laid low for a while, but the strategy is still as horribly cold, lacing watering holes and salt pans with the lethal chemical.

The redundancy of ceaseless investigations for a crime that has changed neither in shape nor form is proving costly. If any lessons were learnt from the 2013 killings, it is fairly reasonable to expect that by now authorities should have some good enough intelligence to beat the poachers at their own game.

Corrupt system
That has not happened, however, for unclear reasons. But what is clear is that cyanide continues to find its way into the wrong hands, the hands of elaborate criminal ivory syndicates, and in large volumes, too. Authorities are perplexed, just like everyone else. “It is difficult to control the usage of cyanide because we do not know who has it . . . ” said Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, outgoing chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, last week.

Mr Dube wants increased transparency and accountability of cyanide imports, hoping that will make it easier for authorities to track down violations in the use or abuse of the chemical. But the system contains multiple loopholes. With just 15g of cyanide enough to kill an adult 6-tonne elephant, many have been found in possession of several kilogrammes of the deadly chemical, either smuggled by the poachers into the country or bought from local suppliers.

Last year police in Dete arrested two villagers on allegations of killing five elephants at the Hwange National Park by cyanide poisoning, but the real kingpins who allegedly supplied the villagers with 7kg of the poison, are still free men.

Inefficiency, poor Parks funding
Barring poor Government funding, the top heavy organisational structure of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority does not allow for fluid, efficient and effective decision- making. At the top, the director general is cushioned by a coterie of 20 top managers, including two directors, one for commercial services and another for finance, administration and human resources.

Most decisions would have to pass through a number of the managers before reaching the director general, and eventually the board. Such congested structures tend to impede effective decision making that yield efficient on-the-ground implementation. Two weeks ago, journalists from the weekly The Sunday Mail were refused entry to a historic park at Chewore, 300km north of Harare, on flimsy grounds they did not have clearance from head office in the capital.

Even as tourists, entry was denied. Such inefficiencies result from unnecessarily rigid and complex organisational structures. The Parks and Wildlife Authority is better served with much leaner structures that delegate greater decision making autonomy to those below the director general, at least on seemingly small issues such as The Sunday Mail Chewore incident.

That said, Government will have to start digging deeper into its vault to increase the Parks and Wildlife Authority spending, and its capacity to respond to emerging poaching trends. For 2015, Treasury allocated the Authority $3,8 million, hardly changed from a year earlier, but that is seldom enough in a world where wildlife trafficking has become multi-billion dollar industry, an industry controlled by wealthy, organised and powerful thieves.

Nearly millions of dollars was spent on new vehicle purchases to boost anti-poaching response. Poachers are likely to spend more on new dirtier tricks. The number of interventions needed to combat poaching are never exhaustive. They will have to include addressing poverty in communities that co-exist with wildlife along national parks. Poverty is a huge inspiration for poaching.

Governance will need tightening while programmes such as Campfire will have to show increasing direct benefit to communities, hoping that will change attitudes on conser- vation. In 2013, over 20 000 African elephants were killed illegally for their ivory, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The figure was a decline on 2011 and 2012 poaching levels, but remains unsustainably high.

God is faithful.

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