Zimbabwe sitting on US$700 million worth ivory stockpile

Zimbabwe is sitting on a 166 221.18kg ivory stockpile worth USD 700 million which it cannot sell due to the ban on international trade in elephant tusks, a cabinet Minister has said.

Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Environment, Climate Change and Wildlife Minister Sthembiso Nyoni said the stockpile was from 26 906 pieces collected in and outside its national parks.

‘As an international law-abiding country we have complied and are being pushed to keep this stock,” she said.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES) banned international trade in ivory in 1989.

Recognising that some Southern African elephant populations were healthy and well-managed, CITES permitted Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to make a one-off sale of their ivory in 1997 and 2008.

Nyoni commended the Parliament of Zimbabwe, civil society organisations and progressive development sector players for joining the government in calling on CITES to lift the unjustified ban since its elephant population is ballooning while other countries have allowed theirs to disappear.

Zimbabwe wants CITES to lift the international on international trade-in ivory to enable it to use the proceeds to fund its wildlife conservation programs, which include anti-poaching activities, drilling boreholes in the Hwange National Park where animals face water shortages, especially during droughts like the one that the country is facing this year, as well as combating human-wildlife conflict.

Nyoni said while the country is sitting on a huge ivory stockpile that it cannot sell, it is keeping the elephants and other wildlife at a very high cost, which has allowed their populations to grow.

It is estimated that the elephant population in Zimbabwe stands at slightly more than 100 000, up from 84 000 in 2014 when the last census was conducted, for a carrying capacity of about 45 000.

“To give you a vivid picture Madam Speaker, in Matabeleland North, the elephant population has increased from 49 310 to 61 531.  This was from 2021 to 2022, an increase of 12 221 and this was based on an aerial survey,” Nyoni said, adding most of the elephants are in the Hwange National Park.

She said owing to its commendable conservation efforts, which have seen its wildlife population increasing, Zimbabwe is facing a rise in cases of human-wildlife conflict that threatens the safety of people and their livelihoods.

“In 2023 alone, more than 35 people were killed by wildlife and more than 80 were injured.  The consequences of human-wildlife conflict are more serious in wildlife areas such as communities around Hwange National Parks.  People lose livestock and crops and yet these are an important part of their livelihoods and incomes, apart from themselves losing lives,” she said, elephants and buffaloes were the most involved.

As a response, Nyoni said the government is setting up a Human-Wildlife Conflict Relief Fund that will be managed by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to assist the remaining family members of those killed as well as those injured and maimed.

She said her Ministry is in the process of consulting communities to get their input on how the fund will be structured, as well as the design of the necessary modalities for evaluation and technical assessment.- New Ziana