Zimbabwe: Transfrontier Conservancy Hit By Rampant Poaching

The Zimbabwe section of the world's largest inter-regional conservation park has been hit by rampant poaching, with at least 20 elephants being slaughtered in recent months.

The Gonarezhou National Park, which is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, has seen an alarming upsurge in cross-border poaching of elephants. Late last year ten elephants were killed in Gonarezhou and at least six more are said to have been killed in the same area, in the last month alone.

SW Radio Africa has been sent shocking images of the slaughter of elephants in the Chiredzi River Conservancy, which is set to form part of the planned Transfrontier 'Peace Park'. The images show two elephants that were butchered for their tusks last month. One was an adult bull, and the other was a young cow with a very small calf. It's not clear if the calf has survived.

SW Radio Africa has been told that the poaching is connected to infighting within ZANU PF, with top 'chefs' fighting to take over whatever remaining assets the country has left. Wildlife conservancies across the country have reportedly been invaded by hordes of people, working under top party officials, and the result is a devastating level of poaching.

In May it emerged in a report that ZANU PF is linked to a complex, international syndicate that is specialising in the trafficking and poaching of Zimbabwe's wildlife. According to a report published by the Daily News newspaper, the ZANU PF officials are part of an "intricate web of international trafficking in wildlife that has raised the hackles of animal lovers and wildlife conservationists."

The party's involvement has been revealed in the ongoing case against a group dubbed the "Musina Mafia," which is believed to be Africa's biggest rhino, elephant and lion poaching syndicate. Eleven members of the group were arrested last year and are facing charges of poaching, illegal gun possession and other crimes, in the border town Musina. Their boss, a South African citizen named Dawie Groenewald, has connections with top ZANU PF officials who have been implicated in poaching rings since before 2003.

Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told SW Radio Africa on Monday that the involvement of top ZANU PF officials is well known. He explained that it is all connected to the party's land grab scheme, "and the only objective that I can see is greed."

"The easy way of getting rid of the conservationists to take the land, is to intimidate. And the poaching is a clear intimidatory tactic. So they are using the animals to achieve their objective," Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues continued by saying that the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe means there is no accountability and no way of enforcing any protection laws.

"Its going to get much worse before it gets better. If we don't put a stop to it the sad truth is we will see the extinction of these animals here," Rodrigues said.

Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has revealed that nearly 200 rhinos were killed in South Africa in the first half of 2011, with most slaughtered in the world-famous Kruger National Park. The group said in a statement that South Africa lost 193 rhinos in the first six months of the year, with 126 of them killed in Kruger. Last year a record 333 rhinos were killed in South Africa, which is home to about 70 percent of the world's rhino population.

"Poaching is being undertaken almost without exception by sophisticated criminals, sometimes hunting from helicopters and using automatic weapons," said Joseph Okori, WWF's African rhino programme coordinator. "South Africa is fighting a war against organised crime that risks reversing the outstanding conservation gains it made over the past century."

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conservation park has been hit by rampant poaching

What a shock.

The Atlanta school district hit by rampant cheating.

What a shock.

As much as I detest the idea of poaching, anyone who has been to Zimbabwe knows the country is overrun with elephants. On our 2010 hunt, we couldn't get away from them. We saw sign every day and the elephant damage to the environment was obvious.

It's no surprise the ruling party would be involved. They seem to have their fingers in every other illicit scheme in the country.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful place. It's just a damn shame it's controlled by a criminal enterprise.

For what it's worth, I hunted in the very Conservancy which forms part of the topic of discussion here. The place is in actual fact very far from being overrun with elephants as a result of the fact that Zim Parks reacts to every report from tghe many squatters in the area by driving onto the Conservancy, selecting a big bull ele, shooting it, chopping out the tusks and distributing the meat to the "locals". By late last year, the Conservancy was down to a single breeding bull elephant, although that seems to have changed recently, going by this report...

Funny also that Mr Rodrigues has suddenly woken up to the plight of the wildlife in this particular area of Zim. I'm very reliably informed that he wasn't too keen to visit the place earlier and see for himself what the real situation was on the ground, for all the good he and his organisation may have accomplished for the wildlife in other areas of Zim.