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Zimbabwe: Jumpo Poaching Soars - Report

By Shame Makoshori


A GLOBAL report has painted a gloomy picture on the future of Zimbabwe's elephant herd, revealing shocking evidence that the number of Jumbos killed by poachers in Chewore alone increased by 12 percent last year.

This was a period when authorities increased efforts to stem a ruthless slaughter of elephants in Hwange National Park, where reports of cyanide poisoning emerged, with scores of Jumbos succumbing after drinking from poisoned wells.

It appears the dramatic killings spread everywhere.

Poachers ravaged regions where illegal killings were largely out of the public sphere, even though this was executed with precision.

A Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) report released last week to mark the United Nations World Wildlife Day ranked the wildlife rich Chewore among Africa's hotspots of elephant poaching.



The CITES' report showed that Chewore was ranked third in terms of illegal killing of elephants during the period, after South Africa's Kruger National Park, which witnessed a 23 percent rise in poaching and Ruaha-Rungwa in Tanzania, where poaching soared by 15 percent.

The report expressed concern over the "substantial" killings in "one of the most secure sites for elephants in Africa".

Chewore is situated in the Zambezi Valley, which has seen its elephant population slide to about 12 000 from 19 000 elephants in 2001.

The country has a total of about 100 000 elephants.

The decimation of elephants escalated in most regions except in a few countries like Kenya, the CITES report said.

West, central and southern Africa were among regions affected by an escalation of syndicated poaching, which is fast turning an already bad situation into a full blown catastrophe.

"While the overall poaching levels in Southern Africa remain below the threshold, a troubling upward trend in elephant poaching was for the first time observed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Although the overall elephant population in Kruger is not in decline, the situation could change if the trends observed in 2015 continue. Significantly increased poaching levels were also found in Ruaha-Rungwa, United Republic of Tanzania and Chewore, Zimbabwe," CITES said.

"African elephant populations continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from unacceptably high-levels of poaching for their ivory, especially in central and west Africa where high levels of poaching are still evident. There are some encouraging signs, including in certain parts of Eastern Africa, such as Tsavo in Kenya, where the overall poaching trends have declined, showing us all what is possible through a sustained and collective effort with strong political support," the report said.

The new data indicated that about 60 percent of elephant deaths in 2015 were at the hands of poachers, with at least 20 000 of them killed across Africa last year.



In Zimbabwe, about 24 000 elephants have been lost to poachers over the past 20 years, prejudicing the hard currency starved economy of an estimated US$3 billion in sport hunting fees alone.

Poachers have become a menace within Zimbabwe's animal sanctuaries where they are running rings around a poorly resourced Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Elephants have been the main target, as poachers seek to satisfy an insatiable demand for ivory, skins, bones and other jumbo organs in some parts of the world.

The poaching of jumbos reached a peak in 2011, when it accounted for about 75 percent of their deaths.

After 2001, elephant poaching began to decline, although many experts say it remained high.

Quite scary, in the past few months reports coming out of the valley there probably between 2-5 elephant a day being poached. Parks stations still operating on shoe string budgets, staff are currently anywhere from 1-3 months behind in receiving their salaries. Fuel allocation to field stations are a joke, mkanga field station in chewore south safari area receives on average 300-400 litres a month, to run a safari area that's 2040sq/km in size. Most field staff are not properly trained.

Fighting poachers is a war! Not a walk in the park. So staff that haven't been paid, are not supported fully, and lack basic field equipment, are generally not going to give their best performance.... Would you?

We have said it time and time again, until such time as qualified people, with the necessary experience are put into these areas, we are on a downward slippery slope.

We are in serious trouble, and I am afraid it just plays into the USFW / Anti's hands.. It's very difficult to argue when carcasses are stacking up in the field.

Where are all the anti hunters dollars when wildlife needs them...? These anti poaching operations cost lots of money to run properly, I know of several people willing to step in and get into the field, put their lives on the line for conservation. Besides the cost of employing these guys, and supplying the necessary vehicles , aircraft , equipment to them, one has to get the politicians on board.

The only deterrent to the poachers, is a simple. Shoot to kill. Results from the last few contacts with poachers in the valley, are dismal to be honest. Current kill rate is less then 15%. Last week there were 3 contacts in one day, not a single poacher killed / captured. Ivory dropped, weapons dropped, etc... But they live to poach another day.

It is sad, very sad. I agree that the shoot to kill policy is the only thing that will stop it.

I have shot quite a few elephants in the Valley. Every single one of them had wounds from poachers.

I'm not sure about the overall number of 100,000, but it would be interesting to know where CITES got the stats, given the recent round of game counts.

It's a big problem, and a lot of the anti-poaching has been privatized of necessity. But as I've said before, where are the millions of Cecil-lovers now, when $1 from each one of them could provide the necessary infrastructure and morale?

Also, worth remembering that while the Financial Gazette was once the country's main independent newspaper, it's now in the government fold.

The Cecil lovers couldn't even raise $30,000 for his statue.

All the dedicated , conservation minded guys who give their time,vehicles,expertise and much more for free... Should be honorary game wardens, as we had prior to and just after independence,which would give them the legal protection in terms of our law, to be able to shoot to kill these poachers. You would immediately see the kill count rise. Unfortunately having white Zimbabwean professional hunters and citizens killing African poachers is probably never going to be allowed or sanctioned by the politicians in the current government.

We believe Our elephant population is probably closer to 70000-75000 country total. However these populations now are limited to a few areas, hwange being the largest population , followed by gona re Zhou and then the Zambezi valley. With smaller scattered populations country wide. It would seem our parks department are not eager to share the facts and figures from the great elephant census aerial survey. Local Reports and facts and figures can be manipulated by the powers that be, but the carcass counts and poaching activities aren't that easy to hide anymore, especially now social media is used more and more by conservationists.