quote:

Originally posted by Cajun1956:
Earlier this week, I read an article entitled "Zimbabwe's Elephants are Dying, But its Rhino are Doing Better". I encountered the article while visiting WildAid's Facebook. The article appeared in National Geographic's "Voices - Saving Elephants - A Forum for Discussion" and was authored by Oscar Nkala who is a Zimbabwean journalist based in Gaborone, Botswana.

I have embedded an excerpt for your convenience:

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(excerpt)

The number of rhinos killed by poachers in Zimbabwe spiked to 164 in 2008. In 2014, poachers killed 15 rhinos in Zimbabwe—including five black rhinos in Save Valley and one white rhino in Bubye Valley.

This year, fewer than ten have been killed for their horns, sold illegally in Vietnam and other Asian countries for their imagined medicinal and other powers.

Zimbabwe’s rhino population, estimated at 766 in 2014, is the continent’s fourth largest after South Africa, Kenya, and Namibia. (Some 2,200 rhinos roamed Zimbabwe in 1999.)

The dramatic reduction in the killings is because 90 percent of the country’s rhinos have been removed from high-risk poaching areas to Intensive Conservation Zones, says Johnny Rodriguez , chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. These secure zones are essentially protected breeding areas in selected game reserves.

The protected breeding areas are in Matobo, Bubye Valley, Save Valley, Hwange (Sinamatella Camp), Sebakwe, Chivero, Malilangwe, and Imire Conservancies.

Conservation groups, alarmed about the decimation of the country’s rhinos, stepped up the relocation of the surviving animals from high-risk poaching areas to safe zones.

“High security has drastically reduced poaching,” Rodriguez says. “More births are still being recorded.”

Fatalities dropped from 66 in 2012 to 20 in 2013 and only six in 2014. Eight rhinos have been poached since January 2015—far fewer than the new births recorded at the country’s main breeding centers, in Save and Bubye Valley Conservancies.

Both sanctuaries are run by the Lowveld Rhino Trust (LRT), a local conservation group that now protects 90 percent of Zimbabwean rhinos in partnership with the U.S.-based International Rhino Fund (IRF).

In a recent statement, the IRF said the lowveld rhino program owes its success to translocation, tracking, monitoring and anti-poaching efforts, as well as the treatment and rehabilitation of rhinos.

According to the IRF, 100 rhinos had been born in Bubye Valley Conservancy by 2012, and the birth rate has been growing at 5 to 10 percent a year since then. In 2012, 82 black rhinos were introduced into the protected breeding area, and at least 100 more births are expected by 2020.
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Noting that both the Bubye and Save Valley Conservancies are mentioned in the article, I accessed their respective websites in an effort to learn more about their ongoing wildlife conservation initiatives. Although the Save's website provided insight into their ongoing conservation initiatives, the Bubye's website provides a more in depth understanding of their ongoing wildlife conservation initiatives along with the role that hunters-conservationists play in protecting Zimbabwe's wildlife.

For your convenience, I have embedded a few excerpts from the Bubye website. If one is searching for a successful hunter-conservationist story to share with his/her non-hunting friends and family members, please advise them to visit the Bubye's website (especially their Conservation section). Oh, please note that our ole friend Johnny Rodriguez with the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force is quoted within the article. Hey Johnny, "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste!" Right?

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(excerpts)

- The conversion from cattle ranching back to a wildlife area was neither straightforward nor cheap, requiring a huge investment and significant annual running costs. But this was all worth it, because today the Bubye Valley Conservancy boasts the world’s third largest black rhino population, Zimbabwe’s largest lion population, a flourishing elephant population, and abundant game; an impressive accomplishment given just 20 years of operation.

- From the original 17 animals present in 1999, the Bubye Valley Conservancy lion population was estimated to be approximately 280 individuals in 2009, and has continued to grow. Today it is estimated that there are nearly 500 lions roaming the Conservancy, which is of concern to management and conservationists alike because of the negative impact that these super predators can have on just about all other animal populations, including those of predators.

- The Bubye Valley Conservation Research initiative is one of the only lion research projects to be based in a trophy hunting area, and is therefore of critical importance because there is more land conserved for hunting in Africa than there is in all of its National Parks network combined. Think about that. There are also far more lions, at much greater population densities, in hunting areas than anywhere else in Zimbabwe. Lions thrive given the resources and protection incentivized by sustainable off-take. Understanding the behavioral ecology of lions in these areas is therefore just as important, if not more so, than research conducted elsewhere.

- Having started with less than 200 individuals in 1998, the elephant population on BVC is now nearing carrying capacity, at approximately 700. This population now needs to be managed – but more importantly, the skewed sex ratios that exist on BVC, with an unusual number of young bulls, needs to be urgently addressed. This is largely the result of young elephant breaking in to the conservancy, due to over populations and habitat loss elsewhere as well as harassment in the neighboring communal lands for crop raiding. Between 5 and 30 elephants enter this way every year, breaking through the electrified fence.

- It should also be noted that BVC has never lost an elephant to poaching, and that the population already on BVC is increasing at between 5 – 8 % annually.

- Black rhinos are a critically endangered species, and the Bubye Valley Conservancy black rhino population was founded in 2002 by animals that were in desperate need of a safe haven following Zimbabwe’s land reform program in 2000. Given its size, habitat quality, and competent management, the Bubye Valley Conservancy was the ideal refuge for rhinos from other areas that could not cope with the renewed poaching onslaught. Having a small population of white rhino at the time, the Conservancy shareholders agreed to take the black rhinos, not realizing just how big a task and responsibility they were accepting, and that they were to become the custodian on behalf of the Zimbabwean Government of what is now the largest black rhino population on private land.

- The Conservancy increased its system of rewards and incentives using funds donated principally by the hunting clients of the Bubye Valley Conservancy, and special mention must be made of professional hunters Pete Fick and John Sharp who have made outstanding efforts through their clients to source funds for anti-poaching.

- Sustainable trophy hunting, based on an old fashioned respect for ethics, provides the incentive and revenue to achieve this amazing conservation success – and for that the Bubye Valley Conservancy makes no apology because without this then none of those animals would even be there.

- Approximately 1.4 million square kilometers in Africa is protected for hunting (that’s an area 67 times larger than the country of Wales – to use the standard unit of measure in ecology!), which is over 20% more land than all of the national parks in Africa combined. That is a huge area of land on which endemic geckos, butterflies, eagles, flowers and trees etc. are completely protected because of the ability to sustainable harvest a few animals… There are more lions in Zimbabwean hunting areas than there are in its national parks. There are also more rhinos in these areas. These are not co-incidents.

- The Bubye Valley Conservancy invests over US$ 300,000 of the proceeds generated from hunting safaris into anti-poaching efforts, not to mention conservation research projects. This is on-top of the several million dollars it costs to run the Conservancy each year. And it is not even enough! Thankfully many of the hunting clients step-up and donate thousands of dollars of their own money to cover the short-fall. With the click of a button a million people might sign a sensationalized anti-hunting petition on social media – but how much do they actually invest in conservation?

- Consider the plant and animal diversity currently protected in hunting areas, as well as the function of this wilderness as genetic corridors between national parks. Contemplate also what would happen to these areas, and the biodiversity they contain, if there was no more hunting… No one can be naive enough to believe that they would remain wild.

- If lion hunting was suddenly banned, what do you think would be the fate of the 500+ lions that roam the Bubye Valley Conservancy and prey on other animals, competing with the hunters? And if all hunting was banned over night, do you think that the wildlife would just be left alone? Africa is not the wild continent it once was and still portrayed as by the romantics. There is not one square inch of Africa that is not owned by either governments or individuals, and all of it needs to generate income. Without the ability to sustainbly utilize the wildlife resource, said wildlife would either be ranched for meat production (those species that have no value to the butcheries would simply be eradicated) or completely removed and replaced with cattle or some other form of industry. As harsh as that may sound, that is the truth of the matter.

- Poaching is another scourge that is prevented by the investment of the hunting industry in boots-on-the-ground protection of their resource. Without being valued by the good guys, wildlife is doomed by the bad guys. There are two main types of poaching that happen on a daily basis in Africa; indiscriminate bush-meat poaching using wire snares, and highly organized criminal syndicates targeting rhino and elephant. Poaching has a devastating effect on the wildlife (and human morale), and it is only in the relatively well-funded hunting areas that both of these types of poaching can be actively combated.

- The conception of the Bubye Valley Conservancy required an incredible amount of foresight, but also the wisdom to realize that in the business of wildlife conservation there is no success unless you have the support of the surrounding communities. The Conservancy donates over 45 tonnes of meat to the local communities each year, which effectively removes the incentive for meat poaching. In addition to this, the Conservancy also supports several schools, clinics, and community projects in the three surrounding districts of Mwenezi, Maranda and Jopempe. This costs the Conservancy over US$ 100,000 per year, but is worth every cent in ensuring community support and tolerance for the wildlife. Indeed, the support of the local communities can prove invaluable in thwarting the ruthless efforts of poachers.
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Cheers and Happy New Year!