Wildlife Sector Loses EU Support

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)

April 28, 2004


OPERATIONS of the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) have been severely hampered by lack of money following the withdrawal of European Union (EU) assistance amounting to 10 million euros (K48 billion).

ZAWA director general Hapenga Kabeta told the parliamentary committee on energy yesterday that the EU abruptly withdrew support from the wildlife sector after Government diverted money meant for the authority to other areas.


When pressed to explain further, Tourism director Justina Wake said at the time the EU were to release money to ZAWA, then minister of Finance Emmanuel Kasonde opted to buy grain for relief to mitigate the drought, forcing the EU to pull out.

Mr Kabeta said ZAWA was facing operational difficulties and the current management's problem was to keep the authority afloat.

He said the authority's total budgetary requirement was K60 billion but only received K4 billion through Government subversions. He said currently ZAWA was surviving on proceeds from eco-tourism and safari hunting.

He lamented that the bulk of the licences comprised national hunting which did not garner sufficient resources and only served to depress prices of Government trophy.

"Right now, we have suspended hunting of most sought-after buffaloes and banned hunting in Lunga and Luswishi national parks because the animal is under pressure," he said.

He said ZAWA was instead, promoting trophy hunting of elephants to ease pressure on the buffalo.

And when chairman of the committee, Mwinilunga West Member of Parliament Richard Kapita (UPND) asked why ZAWA management was top-heavy, Mr Kabeta admitted that six directors were too many for an institution struggling to survive.

He said the structure proposed by Deloitte and Touche would be reviewed next week with a view to restructuring the organisation.

He said ZAWA was working towards removing settlers who had encroached on Isangano, Nsumbu, Kafinda, Mumbwa and Blue Lagoon in Kafue National Park.

Terry,
Very right, I can confirm that this has happened and GMA's like the Lunga have been removed from the hunting area list as I was at the ZAWA head office yesterday.
I have met the DG Hapenga Kabeta on other issues and he does have a mammoth task in front of him,unfortunately although ZAWA is an autonomous body they are subject to government fiasco's.
The only sector that will suffer from this is the wildlife itself, In my opinion the EU has done the correct thing as it is high time some sort of fiscal discipline is forced onto Governments like ours.
I am convinced that if the diversion of funds is looked into no grain was actually bought, Relief grain purchasing is a major scam here.
To top it all our government actually had the audacity to reject grain donated by the US under the pretext that it was genetically modified crops and now we have sitiuations like this one.
Its times like this when I wonder about the IQ levels of our leaders.

This is troubleing to me, because Zambia is my favorite country in all of Africa to hunt. The buffalo must have taken quite a hit, by poachers, during the no hunting period last year. One thing positive is, they opened elephant hunting, though I doubt the trophies can be imported into the USA, unless things have changed. There are lots of fine ele in the Luangwa Valley, or were the last time I was there. Hope they get things sorted out quickly! The longer areas are closed to hunting, the more animals get butchered, and sold as biltong, with no regard to sex, age, or population endangerment, let alone trophy quality!

That's Africa, however, and common sense is not too common in the African governments, sadly!

Terry,

I have described Zambia's safari industry as a "yo-yo" because of all the past ups and downs, it looks like what I thought would ba an up is going to be something else.

Africa is indeed Africa.

jim

I find this very disturbing. I hope they get this sorted out before things go to hell. This may explain some things said by their delegation at SCI.

Before we get to many wobbles in our steering, correct me if I'm wrong but ...

Quote:

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He lamented that the bulk of the licences comprised national hunting which did not garner sufficient resources and only served to depress prices of Government trophy.

"Right now, we have suspended hunting of most sought-after buffaloes and banned hunting in Lunga and Luswishi national parks because the animal is under pressure," he said.

He said ZAWA was instead, promoting trophy hunting of elephants to ease pressure on the buffalo.

---

From what I read into the report, apart from the ZAWA dry up of EU funds, if you look at the quote carefully I believe it refers to (local hunting permits,) NOT to the government concession hunting or private ranches which international clients would be hunting ... So dont get too excited and think you can now hunt Elephants ... that is how I read it anyhow ..

Peter

BallaBalla,
You are right, this does not really affect most of the forum members and if my sources are correct the elephant licenses will not be open to foreigners.
The logic behind all this does defeat me, I have even brought up the issue of costs of resident licenses as they have remained static for the last two years.
The message we are trying to get through is that hunting should be a sport and not a commercial venture. The scenario as it stands at the moment is that we have hordes of people driving to the flats and unethically shooting large numbers of Lechwe that end up in the markets in Lusaka.
Mike Borman and myself are busy trying to put an association together to try to lobby and get some changes done.
Some of the issues that ZAWA have agreed on is that they are going to;
Restrict and enforce min caliber for the locals in the past even Zebra was issued on shotgun licenses.
There is going to be a restriction of two resident hunters per area at any given time.
There are a whole lot of issues that are still pending that need to be sorted out, and I tend to get very fed up. But as you know Mike is like a jack russel and is very persistent and keeps us going.
I want to make sure my kids will still be able to hunt after I am gone, unfortunately a lot of our resident hunters are very shortsighted.
But then again we are AFRICA and the best we can do is try.

Zambian

Good luck with ZAWA .... it's like getting blood out of a stone at times dealing with them .. Pass on my regards to Mike Borman, a very good chap all round ... WE use Mike for all our trophy processing work ..

Take care

Regards, Peter