The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE has an overwhelming elephant population of about 80 000, double the country’s carrying capacity, a situation that is posing a threat to ecological balance in national parks and conservancies, it has been learnt.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWLMA) acting director (conservation), Mr Geoffreys Matipano, told Sunday News yesterday that the population of elephants in the country needed to be reduced as it was threatening the existence of other species in protected areas.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a media tour of Hwange National Parks.
Mr Matipano said ZPWLMA was exploring various methods of reducing the population to the preferred density of 0,5 elephants per square kilometre.
His remarks fly in the face of the United States government exposing its hypocrisy by imposing a ban on the importation of elephant products from Zimbabwe arguing that the country’s elephant population was dwindling.
“We have a local over-abundance of elephants in protected areas and we need to move towards reducing the population density as a way of promoting biodiversity in our protected areas and maximise utilisation.
“The current situation where we have elephants more than double our carrying capacity has seen the existence of some animal species being threatened by the feeding behaviour of animals and we don’t want to lose other animals.
“Efforts are being made to control elephant population and we are exploring various methods. Each method has to be influenced by some sort of science, hard and social sciences,” he said.
Among some of the methods Mr Matipano said the authority was considering were, culling, live sales as well as live captures and translocations to other areas with lesser population densities of the animals.
“We are looking at culling, where we have to periodically kill elephants in numbers. The proposal is on the table but it’s expensive. Disposing some of the products, like meat and hides, may not go far in recouping the expenses incurred during culling.
“Only ivory has enough value which allows us to recoup the expenses but because we are not allowed to sell elephant tusks, that option becomes tricky.
“Another option is of live sales where we capture and sell live elephants locally or internationally. We only consider this method if the buyer has conservation intentions since we are a conservation country. We are also considering translocation of the animals to places where there is lesser population density,” he said.
“There is also another option of controlling water points but this one has to be carried out in a cautious manner. We have observed that previously we didn’t have as many elephants especially in Hwange, but ever since we started manipulating water supply the population has gradually increased. So we feel maybe if we close some water points this might work in reducing the population. But we have to be careful not to drive them away from protected areas to communal lands.”
Mr Matipano also spoke on the criticism by animal rights groups on the country’s live sales of elephants describing the sentiments as misplaced, uninformed and unfortunate.
“These are misplaced comments and perceptions that are based on lack of information. We are an experienced institution when it comes to wildlife management. Actually the country is one of the best countries when it comes to wildlife conservation.
“When carrying out live captures and sales we always follow and meet standards set by the International Union on Conservation of Nature. Now for someone to come and criticise us it’s quite unfortunate,” he said.
Mr Matipano added that the ban imposed by USA on imports of elephant products from Zimbabwe, was a direct attempt to stifle the country’s economic growth as it had nothing to do with animal rights, as purported by the American government.
He described the ban as an extension of the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by America and its allies.
“Zimbabwe’s population estimates are constantly questioned by animal rights movements, and poaching levels grossly inflated by some animal rights and green organisations.
“This criticism has parallels with political vilification of the country and has had negative implications on how potential foreign clients view Zimbabwe’s wildlife industry.
“America’s ban on imports of our elephant products is a direct attack on our economy and their reasons for doing that don’t make sense. The ban has nothing to do with conservation, it’s an extension of their sanctions. They impose the ban yet they are not doing anything to help our conservation efforts. That’s hypocrisy,” said Mr Matipano.
The USA ban on elephant hunting trophies from Zimbabwe was imposed in April last year through invocation of the country’s Endangered Species Act after the US government argued that they were not sure about the status of a species population or sustainability of utilisation in Zimbabwe.
