We must be allowed to harvest animals

Comment-Bulawayo Chronicle

THE Hwange National Park is faced with an ecological crisis as the animal population has ballooned sharply, raising fears that wildlife could succumb to hunger and thirst.

Zimbabwe has one of the biggest elephant populations in the world, with about 120 000 animals in its national parks and private game sanctuaries, yet it can only optimally hold 45 000. Hwange National Park alone has about 45 000 elephants, which is more than double its carrying capacity of 20 000.
The population at Hwange National Park is increasing rapidly due to the influx of animals from Botswana and Namibia in search of water and food. If no measures are taken to control the animal numbers, a population crash is inevitable.
Already, all natural water points are dry and the park needs about 15 000 litres of diesel per month to pump water.
This is a big challenge, considering that the country is facing serious fuel shortages. In 2005, 53 buffaloes, 18 elephants and one giraffe were confirmed to have died of thirst in the Hwange National Park. Many more animals could have succumbed to hunger and thirst as parks officials struggled to provide water.
About a month ago, Southern African countries fought the proposed ban on ivory trade during the Convention of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting at The Hugue, Netherlands.
While we welcome the decision to allow Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa a oneoff sale of ivory stockpiles to Japan, we believe the “elephant story†was politicised by some powerful lobby groups and environmentalists from the West. The argument from Southern African countries that population numbers have overgrown the carrying capacity was not given the attention that it deserved.
Away from the meeting at The Hugue, Zimbabwe is now faced with the problem of a ballooning elephant population. Surprisingly, some of the Western campaigners for the ban on elephant harvesting have never visited any of our parks to see the sort of ecological destruction that the elephants are causing. What is purely an environmental issue was turned into an antiZimbabwe campaign in the West.
But is the West aware that animals may soon die in numbers? Are they aware that human beings are now living under fear from these marauding animals that are now a threat to villagers living adjacent to the national parks? Do they think that villagers who are in need of food will stand and watch animals dying in the parks? One wonders whether watching animals die of hunger and thirst is “conservationâ€.
We believe this is a serious issue which demands reason and not politics in dealing with it. Zimbabwe has tried several methods of controlling the jumbo population but they have had zero impact.
We believe the solution is controlled harvesting of animals, particularly elephants. This would help reduce animal populations to manageable levels and, at the same time, discourage villagers from poaching and killing animals that are likely to invade communities in search of food and water.
Diesel might be made available to pump water from boreholes but it may prove a task difficult to provide food, particularly for elephants that consume 70 percent of all the plant food in the bush leaving all the other animals to share the remaining 30 percent.
Therefore, it makes sense for Zimbabwe to be allowed to reduce its jumbo population while ensuring that funds are generated for conservation and local communities who live with the animals. If no deliberate policy to cull animals is made, the booming population is set to bring environmental and social problems to the country and communities that live adjacent to the national parks.
This African problem needs an African solution, we must revisit our ageold conservation programmes in areas where elephant populations are ballooning.
The controlled harvesting of animals is the right solution.