Parks authority suspends hunting in conservancies

From Bulawayo Bureau

THE Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has suspended hunting in conservancies to allow for the improvement of the quality of trophy.

In an interview, parks public relations manager Retired Major Edward Mbewe said the authority stopped hunting in conservancies such as Gwayi and Matetsi about three weeks ago to allow hunting trophy to improve. "We cannot allow people to continue hunting because we want the animals to be more mature before hunting can resume," he said. "We want to improve the quality of the trophies." Rtd Maj Mbewe urged rural communities to avoid killing lions whenever the animals strayed into the communal areas. "Villagers should report any stray lions instead of killing the animals. Lions are favoured by hunters and, thus, generate a lot of foreign currency during hunting seasons," he said. On lions which killed cattle in Hwange District, Rtd Maj Mbewe said officers from his department have since captured the animals and relocated them to Hwange National Park. Rtd Maj Mbewe said there have been complaints from tourists that there were few species in the Hwange National Park because of drought. He said such reports were not true because the animals have moved into thick forests due to heavy rains, which have resulted in the improvement of water supplies. Scores of animals died last year as a result of drought. Meanwhile, Rtd Maj Mbewe said the authority was rehabilitating boreholes and pumps in all national parks. "There has been drought in recent years and the pumps overworked and that is why they wore out quickly. We are trying to boost the equipment, especially water engines before the onset of the next rainy season," he said.

quote:

"There has been drought in recent years and the pumps overworked and that is why they wore out quickly. We are trying to boost the equipment, especially water engines before the onset of the next rainy season," he said.

Yea, not because they take lube oil, maintenanace, spare parts, someone that can trouble shoot them, knows how to work on them,
and that diesel goes in the fuel tank, wherever that is, and not because the money for engines and maintenance was diverted.

We're going to fix Social Security one of these days.

Gwayi and Matetsi were sucked up by Bob's friends who, I suspect, allowed them to be shot to Hell in order to make more money. No doubt the foreign bank accounts of these Comrades are filled to the brim.

Remember, Out of Africa was operating in those areas.

Regards,

Terry

I wonder if the Save is effected ...

Its actually comical when these bozos try to get serious after screwing up.

The Save is privately owned and thus, as I understand, outside of Gov't reguation.

JPK

Matetsi isn't a conservancy anyway.

I have seen quotas on some of the so called railway farms in the Gwaai area that was totally ridiculous and unsustanable. The railway farms are blocks of 5km x5km, so 2500 hectares or 5500 acres big. For instance, one area has a quota of 3 elephant and 8 buffalo bulls for that small area. They pump water like crazy in the dry season to attract game over the railway from Hwange, and then some has even gone as far as shooting the game with spotlights at the waterhole at night (OoA apparently did this from the Railway camp, a beutifull camp build by a previous white owner, now close to a free for all black outfitters.)

Save is unafected.

US F&W have finally begun pushing some of the lacy act violations that have taken place in the gwaii and matetsi areas and government here is worried that they may apply a wider investigation or even outright ban. Those two areas have certainly attracted just about every crook north and south of the limpopo, and the problems emerging are huge- Non just lacy act violations but clients paying and the new operator not banking his money (at the official exchange rate) so the trophies cannot be exported...Must be two dozen cases like that siting with parks at the moment.

I like it.

If the Parks Authority wants to improve the trophy quality in the conservancies then they need to start shooting poachers. It wasn’t hunters who raped the land.

Typical Zim mentality - kill those who produce, reward those who produce nothing, then make the rest of the world pay for it...

Sad

Ganyana!

What is the Zim NP definition of a "conservencey"?

465H&H

Anywhere 5 or more "landowners" have got together to concentrate on wildlife as a source of income rather than crops or cattle, and in so doing created a wildlife "reserve" of more than 100,000 ha.

Almost all of the "new farmers" in the matetsi area - ie those government heavies who allocated themselves those farms banded together to form a "conservancy" to make lobying parks - who still actually try and do a proper job and provide some science to quota setting- easier.

Also, Under the parks and wildlife Act ( chapter 20:14) a landowner can allocate his own quota without reference to parks. However, the "new farmers" do not hold title and so parks set the quota's as if that was normal state land. These quotas have, of course been ignored by the "new farmers" and their local and South African "white hunters" who have pillaged the area.

Zero Drift- Sadly it was sport hunters in the Gwaii and matetsi areas who were responsible for the dramatic decline in lion population that was used as the basis for Kenya to propose putting Lion on Appendix I at the last CITES conference! No poachers involved - just sport hunters. The studdy was carefully done and pretty conclusive. Dr Loveridge who headed that study is actually a fairly pro hunting local lad, but it was a prime example of what happens when you allow unethical safari operators to rape an area.

Would these restrictions also apply to Lemco and the Save conservancies?

465H&H

quote:

Zero Drift- Sadly it was sport hunters in the Gwaii and matetsi areas who were responsible for the dramatic decline in lion population that was used as the basis for Kenya to propose putting Lion on Appendix I at the last CITES conference! No poachers involved - just sport hunters. The studdy was carefully done and pretty conclusive. Dr Loveridge who headed that study is actually a fairly pro hunting local lad, but it was a prime example of what happens when you allow unethical safari operators to rape an area.

Thats interesting Ganyana...and brings a good persperctive and balance to many attitudes one finds. It seems some believe that no matter what we do, hunters are immediately 'saints of conservation' and that nothing else is ever needed to conserve and manage protected areas...I am not arguing against the value of hunting as conservation land use...far from it, I am firmly in that camp, but also sometimes don't understand the blind and unquestioned faith that all hunters immediately and inherently have pragmatic sustainability and discipline in mind, when some clearly don't...

465 - Technically Lemco and Save can do what they like. In practice - Government owns more than half the land in Save (which is on long lease to a couple of German nationals/companies and one property is run by the the governments agricultural extension service)- both conservancies draw up their quota's after extensive input and submit that to parks. The parks ecologist checks to make sure nobody is ripping it, and the minister signs off on the quota. If there was ever a dispute betwen the parks ecologist and the conservancy, the conservancy owners would win in the short term... but would need the support of the minister to protect themselves from allegatioons of "over hunting". In practice, both conservancies set quotas 25% below the recomended maximum from parks and everybody stays happy.

I have no proof but it would seem very strange in a country of starving people that these two areas were not effected by poachers when most of the rest of the country is suffering from the handy work of poachers. Who allocates the quotas, is it not the government. I am sure there are outfitters that will harvest in excess of the quota but the people taking the excess are not "Hunters" as I define hunters. Poachers can come in various colors and nationalities. Some poach for food and others just for the fun of it, eh.

Ganyana:

Will this suspension have a direct or indirect consequence in other Zim hunting areas like Chewore?

Jagter- you are right - as Politically very incorrect saying goes...not all Black men are Kaffirs and not all Kaffirs are black - Perhaps I should have distinguished between a poor peasant trying to feed himself (a traditional Poacher), and a greedy operator ignoring quota's (like OoA and the Reverend Nell and many others) - who I think of as criminals not poachers.

Antonio No effect on the rest of Zim and certainly not parks areas like the chewore. This is a localised reaction to a large problem in a very small part of the country.

Ganyana,

I believe that Barry Duckworth still directly owns the Mokore area of the Save and I know they run their own anti poacher groups to round up hundreds of snares and patrol the area. Hopefully the other owners and operators do the same.

CFA

Roger Whittall likewise at Humani in the Save. They catch an average of two poachers a night they told me. We found a few snares hunting there.

JPK

JPK

Good to know about Rogers area also. He and Barrie were once partners and their individual areas are next to each other. We picked up 10 snares in just one afternoon hunt for waterbuck. One a big circle across a game trail that almost caught me. My PH, Pete Fick, got on the radio and called in their anti-poaching guys to monitor the area.

CFA

CFA,

We marked the snares with TP and when we got back to the truck radioed the gamescouts/anti poaching patrols. Apparenty they collect tons of wire a year picking up snares.

While I was at Humani the Duckworths invited everyone over for a cook out and party. Very nice folks.

JPK

JPK

Glad you had a chance to meet them they are nice folks and run a class operation.

Who was there at the party?

CFA