Government approves wildlife land-based policy

Herald Reporter

GOVERNMENT this week approved the wildlife land-based policy and its implementation document meant to bolster wildlife farming in Matabeleland.

In an interview on Tuesday, Secretary for Environment and Tourism, Mrs Margaret Sangarwe said her ministry was working with the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to immediately begin the regularisation process.

The Gwayi, Dete and Hwange Wildlife areas are the ministry’s target areas owing to the problems parks were experiencing with some operators whose leases expired and want to extend without going to tender.

Wildlife experts have, however, said this is an untapped area with huge potential of bringing the country significant foreign currency and therefore serious measures should be taken to ensure it is protected from unscrupulous operators.

Mrs Sangarwe said her ministry now had the mandate to process the 25-year lease agreements for the wildlife farmers.

"We are going to visit various wildlife rich areas, which include conservancies, some of which are with serious ownership, lease and operational problems around the Matabeleland area," Mrs Sangarwe said.

She said some of the areas were not supposed to have people resettled there and each case will be dealt in accordance with the circumstances and what the wildlife laws dictates.

"Where we need to relocate people because of viability problems and where the ecosystem itself does not permit human settlement, we will have no choice but to ask people to leave."

Mrs Sangarwe said in the Gwayi conservancy, land allocation was in progress.

She said existing wildlife farmers who are mainly whites would not be moved as long as they adhered to laid down regulations, which will apply to everyone even experienced black conservancy operators.

Mrs Sangarwe said the most critical areas included the need to identify the number of conservancies that need assistance and people legally or illegally settled on them and whether it is viable for them to be in those areas.

"The land that one needs for wildlife farming varies in terms of what one would want to nurture. For instance if one is in big game farming, he or she needs not less than 8 000 hectares while one can not demand a large quota of elephants where the population is utterly low," she said.

Mrs Sangarwe said in cases where people are crowded on a small piece of land, recommendations would be made to leave at least not more than three people in the case of "very lucrative" conservancies.

"If they are serious with this business they will not wait to share small hunting quotas usually granted by parks each year for one conservancy,’’ she said.

Mrs Sangarwe added that conservancies have ceased to be private property and are now owned by the State.

"This, however, does not mean Government will forgive those who underutilise the land, this is indeed the critical element for this exercise. It is important for settled farmers to know that conservancies can not be subdivided because this is not practical considering the nature of the business," she said.

Mrs Sangarwe said conservancies should remain business consortiums or companies were individuals own shares.

"Individualisation normally does not work in the case of conservancies therefore subdivided land will have to be merged again and those who have little knowledge about wildlife farming will receive the expertise of how we expect them to run vast wildlife farms."

She said physical boundaries created by some settled farmers were not workable.

"This type of farming is not similar to cropping. It involves a natural environment on which wildlife need to roam around without much restriction."

What the heck does this mean? This woman is worse than Greenspan.

it think it means SNAFU

"Herald Reporter"


First of all it is from the "Herald" which makes it 99% pro-Zim government bullshit.


"The Gwayi, Dete and Hwange Wildlife areas are the ministry’s target areas owing to the problems parks were experiencing with some operators whose leases expired and want to extend without going to tender."


Guess that keeps the new "owners" free from any competition ...


"Wildlife experts have, however, said this is an untapped area with huge potential of bringing the country significant foreign currency and therefore serious measures should be taken to ensure it is protected from unscrupulous operators. "

The Zim gov't gets its US$, that is all they are worried about.



" "We are going to visit various wildlife rich areas, which include conservancies, some of which are with serious ownership, lease and operational problems around the Matabeleland area," Mrs Sangarwe said."

Probably because the current "owners" are sitting on stolen land and the title still rests with the real owners ...



"She said existing wildlife farmers who are mainly whites would not be moved as long as they adhered to laid down regulations, which will apply to everyone even experienced black conservancy operators. "

I wonder how many still actually exist?


" "The land that one needs for wildlife farming varies in terms of what one would want to nurture. For instance if one is in big game farming, he or she needs not less than 8 000 hectares while one can not demand a large quota of elephants where the population is utterly low," she said."

Probably make the hunting a little hard too ...



"Mrs Sangarwe added that conservancies have ceased to be private property and are now owned by the State."

Did the courts actually change the title or the Zim gov't pay the required compensation?



"This, however, does not mean Government will forgive those who underutilise the land, this is indeed the critical element for this exercise. ...." she said.

Under-utilising land, sounds like the whole of Zimbabwe's stolen farms.


"Individualisation normally does not work in the case of conservancies therefore subdivided land will have to be merged again and those who have little knowledge about wildlife farming will receive the expertise of how we expect them to run vast wildlife farms."




"This type of farming is not similar to cropping. It involves a natural environment on which wildlife need to roam around without much restriction."

Aach, but I got this hoe and need to plant my maize plot before it rains ....