From National Geographic of all places.

Can't blame the people of Zim. 80% unemployment and inflation over 5000% - it is either poach or starve. Problem is, there is less and less of the smaller game.

Interesting comments on the failure of land redistribution from a publication like NG.

I particularly like the part about Zim trading elephant ivory to China for military hardware. Wonder if CITES approved that transaction?


Zimbabwe's Wildlife Decimated by Economic Crisis
National Geographic

Nick Wadhams in Nairobi, Kenya
for National Geographic News

August 1, 2007
Wildlife has been nearly wiped out on Zimbabwe's former private game ranches
in the seven years since President Robert Mugabe began seizing and dividing
the areas into small plots, a conservation group says.

Some 90 percent of animals have been lost since 2000, while the country has
seen an estimated 60 percent of its total wildlife killed off to help ease
massive economic woes, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said in a report
issued in June.

"[The animals] are being killed indiscriminately," said Johnny Rodrigues,
the author of the report. "There's a lot of commercial poaching, there are
people on the ground snaring these animals. This is where a lot of the
destruction is coming from."

Economic Meltdown

For its study, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force gathered information and
studied records about 62 game ranches. Fifty-nine reported losses, including
the killings of a total of 75 rare black rhinoceroses and 39 leopards.

Most of the losses appeared among antelope, including 9,500 impalas, nearly
5,000 kudus, and 2,000 wildebeests.

The numbers help give a rough estimate of the environmental impact of
Zimbabwe's recent descent into economic and political chaos.

Inflation-estimated at 5,000 percent-is now the worst in the world. On
Wednesday the government introduced a 200,000 Zimbabwean dollar bill-which
is worth only about $1 dollar U.S. on the black market.

The economic meltdown has had a wide-ranging and devastating impact on what
is one of Africa's premier tourist draws. Zimbabwe's wildlife parks teem
with herds of elephants and rhinos, as well as sights such as Victoria
Falls.

Along with plummeting wildlife numbers, the country has seen massive
deforestation and the neglect of some national parks.

At Hwange National Park, for example, animals have been killed off by severe
drought, a problem exacerbated by scarce gasoline supplies.

There is no longer enough fuel to power the pumps that feed the watering
pans where animals gather.

Policy Disaster

Until now there had only been anecdotal evidence of widespread slaughter on
the private ranches that were occupied under President Mugabe's
controversial land redistribution program.

That policy, implemented in 2000, is seen as a central reason for Zimbabwe's
economic collapse.

Mugabe argued at the time that the reforms would reverse decades of
discrimination and help Zimbabwe shed its colonial past, when wealthy white
farmers snapped up some of the country's best land.

Yet once he expelled the farmers and subdivided the land, the farms that
made Zimbabwe Africa's breadbasket collapsed, and some of the country's most
basic foodstuffs became impossible to find.

And as a result, the subsistence farmers who moved in-often dubbed "war
veterans" by the regime-began to hunt wildlife that had thrived, and in many
cases, been protected on the ranches.

Government regulations meant to shield the animals have been disobeyed, and
wildlife officials have been forced to focus their limited resources on
Zimbabwe's national parks and reserves, where the damage is less severe.

According to the task force, Zimbabwe had 620 private game farms before the
land seizures began, but now has 14. And of 14 conservancies before 2000,
only one remains.

Snare Traps

Because of the proliferation of snares, many of the animals on these former
ranches have been maimed, report author Rodrigues said.

"They're telling the world they want the tourists to come back, but the
tourists aren't going to come back because most of the animals you see
nowadays have amputated legs," he said. "It's just like a rehabilitation
center."

The report acknowledges that the findings are still preliminary-many of the
farmers whose land was seized have left the country, so in some cases the
group had to rely on hazy reports from people still near the former ranches.

"We are not claiming to 'know' how much wildlife has been lost," the report
said. "We have just tried to make the most accurate estimate possible with
very limited data to work with."

Still, the trend is a disaster, because Zimbabwe once had some of the
world's most progressive and successful conservation policies.

Elephant populations there have boomed, and on conservation areas that are
strictly monitored and controlled, rhinoceros populations are growing.

Matter of Survival

Part of the reason for the decline is that poachers from neighboring
countries have entered Zimbabwe to hunt its animals. Another is the booming
trade in bush meat.

"It's a matter of survival," said George Kampamba, coordinator of the
conservation nonprofit WWF's African Rhino Program. "For people to really
survive, now that poverty levels are so high, they have to do what they're
doing-which is the bush meat trade."

The government too has turned on the animals. Rodrigues said the government
slaughtered a hundred elephants last year so their meat could be served as
part of Independence Day celebrations.

And his group has also reported that Zimbabwe recently sold ivory to China
in exchange for military hardware.

Wildlife destruction has become so severe that even Zimbabwe's authoritarian
government is acknowledging mistakes.

"Errors that were made were not intentional," Environment Secretary Margaret
Sangarwe told the state-owned Herald newspaper.

"An area of concern is the resettling of people in some areas meant for
wildlife rearing, and ensuring that our wildlife is safe."

Just where the sam hell do you think that Zim as well as most other post independence countries, have been getting their AK's, SKS, RPG's ad nasuem

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan Chick:
Just where the sam hell do you think that Zim as well as most other post independence countries, have been getting their AK's, SKS, RPG's ad nasuem

A little more fiber in your diet might help.

In case you were not aware, the Chinese have been helping Bob from the beginning. When he was a part of the opposition trying to overthrow Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia.

What I found interesting was the barter trade of ivory for military hardware. Granted no one is going to sell anything in exchange for Zim currency, but despite the mineral wealth in Zim, the Chinese in this case accepted ivory as currency.

The Chinese are operating investing BIG TIME in Zambia as well as in Zimbabwe ...

BUT before anyone starts to put the boot into China, maybe they should ask the question, why the hell are th so called Weastern Powerhouses like USA and UK sitting on their hands and watching it unfold and capitulating to the Chinese infiltration into the economy.

Please can someone more enlightened than me offer an answer as to why the West is paralyzed and pissing around with words and condemnation, have they become soft !! OR has China got us all by the balls and squeezing the living daylights out of us in the WEST (-:

Cheers, Peter

quote:

Originally posted by Balla Balla:

Please can someone more enlightened than me offer an answer as to why the West is paralyzed and pissing around with words and condemnation, have they become soft !! OR has China got us all by the balls and squeezing the living daylights out of us in the WEST (-:

Cheers, Peter

Peter, I won't claim to be more enlightened than you, but I don't see the state of Zimbabwe's economy or the health of its wildlife population having some sort of strategic value to the USA. Almost 100% of strategic mineral and oil resources in Africa have been, in one way or another, controlled by Western Economies and governments since day one. And the Chinese have been trying for 50 years to get more access, from building a white elephant railroad from Dar to Lusaka to building just about every sports stadium and parliament building in Africa for free. I hardly see Zimbabwe getting a prominent position on the diplomatic radar screen in Washington because the Chinese are bartering for ivory with an African despot.

Hi,
If the oil prospection in north Mozambique runs good and they really find something worth, perhaps we'll see some changes in the USA diplomatic efforts in that area (Mozambique, Zimbabwe and neighboring countries). And you can bet that the long-term project of the USA military base in Nacala will go forward.
One thing that worries me is the implications of that base on the terrorist threat levels in MOZ. Rumors are of MOZ being a holiday/rest/financing/money laundering center for terr organizations.

quote:

Please can someone more enlightened than me offer an answer as to why the West is paralyzed and pissing around with words and condemnation, have they become soft !!

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! Very soft!!! As much as I hate to admit it. The U.S. used to talk softly and carry a big stick. Now we talk "smack" and turn tail and run.

Every time a non US citizen looks an American in the eye and says, "You should be taking care of this problem!" (whatever it is), they are also saying directly to you, "You should be giving more of your money to the US Federal government to solve what I consider is a problem." You don't commit resources, whether diplomatic, economic or military, without money and when the US government does it, the US taxpayer pays for it. How much do you want to donate to the Zimbabwe effort, as managed by the US Government?

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
Every time a non US citizen looks an American in the eye and says, "You should be taking care of this problem!" (whatever it is), they are also saying directly to you, "You should be giving more of your money to the US Federal government to solve what I consider is a problem." You don't commit resources, whether diplomatic, economic or military, without money and when the US government does it, the US taxpayer pays for it. How much do you want to donate to the Zimbabwe effort, as managed by the US Government?

It is also the very same people who ask why the US sticks it's nose in everyone else's business.

quote:

Originally posted by Gator1:

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
Every time a non US citizen looks an American in the eye and says, "You should be taking care of this problem!" (whatever it is), they are also saying directly to you, "You should be giving more of your money to the US Federal government to solve what I consider is a problem." You don't commit resources, whether diplomatic, economic or military, without money and when the US government does it, the US taxpayer pays for it. How much do you want to donate to the Zimbabwe effort, as managed by the US Government?

It is also the very same people who ask why the US sticks it's nose in everyone else's business.

Amen

Uh....we've been too busy sticking our nose into Iraq?????

quote:

Uh....we've been too busy sticking our nose into Iraq?????

If we had the support we had in WWII days with our citizenship and would have fought it the same way, would have been done with Irag looooooong ago!

The U.S. just does not have the stomach for fighting anymore. Much to our detriment!!!