New Farmers Decimate Lion Population

Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)

March 7, 2004
Loughty Dube
Bulawayo

As the plunder of wildlife in safari and conservancy areas in Matabeleland North continues unabated, it has emerged that the lion population in the areas has been depleted as a result of wanton hunting by new farmers.

The revelations come in the wake of similar allegations of the plunder of the Presidential Elephant Herd by the new farmers allocated safari land under the fast track land reforms in areas bordering Hwange National Park.


As a result of the indiscriminate slaughter of the beast, the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has reduced the 2004 hunting quota for lions in the Matetsi, Zambezi and Gwayi conservancies.

An internal report, entitled '2004 hunting season private land quotas for approval: Matabeleland North province', co-signed by the authority's chief ecologist, the director of operations, the board chairman and approved by Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema, confirmed the reduction in the hunting quota of lions for the 2004 season.

"Lion population in particular has been observed to be declining as evidenced by reduced hunter success rates and observed low numbers," reads the report.

"It is therefore recommended that the lion quota for the Matetsi and Gwayi be drastically reduced this season, furthermore the hunting off-take from safari areas be reduced significantly per operator during the next hunting season."

This is not the first time that Parks and Wildlife Management has taken action to curb the abuse of hunting rights in the same area.

Last year in October the Department of Parks banned all hunting activities in the Gwayi Valley Conservancy after it emerged that some operators were using fake hunting quotas while other operators were not following stipulated hunting quotas.

The Gwayi Valley Conservancy borders the Hwange National Park and safari ranches that have been allocated to new farmers under the government's A2 model.

The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) chairman, John Rodrigues, however said the reduction in the hunting quota for lions by Parks and Wildlife Management would not have any effect because there were no lions to talk about left.

"There should have been a complete ban on the hunting of lions as the actual number of lions in the country is not known, the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management should first do an audit because the number of lions has dropped so drastically," Rodrigues said.

He said collared lions protected by the World Foundation have also been hunted down while an over-20 animal pride in Kariba has been reduced to a mere three member pride.

"People with concessions are not hunting in a conservative way; they just kill anything on their way, 20 animal-pride in Kariba has been reduced to three beasts and unless the Parks and Wildlife Management put a stop to the hunting of lion altogether we will have no lions to talk about in future," Rodrigues said.

The reduction in the lion hunting quota comes barely four months after the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management banned several safari operators, some of whom include senior Zanu PF politicians, from conducting hunts in the wildlife rich province of Matabeleland North.

Just exactly how is it they are going to enforce this ban, in a lawless country?



The whole country is going to shit, and will just get worse from here. The trashing of Haiti, I mean Zimbabwe, has only just begun.

There is no question the Zimbabwe government is responsible for the wanton slaughter.
At what point do we blame the actual people pulling the trigger?

Unfortunately, I can only surmise that the fate of all of the wildlife in ZIM is in jeopardy. Very sad.

They can all be blamed as they are all guilty of wanton greed. You have to realize that these people are always going for the easy route in life. Why save the animals? Why work for a living? Why do anything at all? Just let the socialist UN come in and save them all. NOT!!

I just returned from a hunt in Zim, and unfortunately I can echo Will's comments. As for lions, I heard that a resident biologist recently reported that there are only 13 mature male lions in all of Hwange National Park.

As for the comment, "why work", we saw this first hand, but not where you might expect. We spent seven nights out sleeping in the native shambas in the communal lands, hoping to shoot crop raiding elephants. Our expectation was that we should easily shoot two or three elephants in a week, as there was a lot of activity. However, because of the massive amounts of food aid the rural people are receiving from the U.S., they are taking very little interest in working and protecting their crops. We sent out runners in all directions each night to alert the locals to come get us when the eles came in. Then, every afternoon we would hear, "Oh, the elephants were here last night." - Just a 1/2 mile or so from where we were sleeping. When we asked why they hadn't come to get us, they would just shrug. They couldn't be bothered when they knew that they would be fed anyway. Not a single person in either Omay or Gokwe stopped us to ask for help with PAC. My PH was even amazed, and that says something. I can tell you that the private grain mills were doing a booming business in the bush, grinding all of that U.S. corn.

There is no fuel in the country. When we drove from Chirisa to Harare, we didn't see another motorized vehicle for over three hours and in five hours, I quit counting at 17 vehicles.

I could go on, but it gets depressing...

A stone age wasteland minus the animals but plenty of neanderthals.

And 2004 and 2005 is Zims turn in the barrel....Africa repeating itself...hopefully she will survive and I think she will, but the wound will heal very slowly this time and leave a big scar in the best Africa had to offer...much the same as RSA and Mozambique, its the changing of the guard and the changing times....

The fact that Bush approved aid to these lower then slime
makes me want to puke.

We have people in this country that need the money, the people that earn it.

s

The story I heard was that the corn only shows up in towns, coincidentally, that are ZanuPF/Magabe strongholds.



They're still chucking spears at each other, metaphorically speaking. If it had not been for colonialism, the game would probably have been gone long ago. Unfortunately, it is going fast. In a way, I am surprised it has taken so long to happen. In just 24 years of "independence" ....



In an e-mail today from a friend in RSA:



"Life goes on and we just are in survival mode."



Oh yeah, things are going to turn around.

Thanks for the insight Socrates. Really helpful. Really.

I hunted in Matetsi the past 3 years and it is true that there are were few lion around this past year. I hunted 57 days this year and hardly saw signs of lions like the previous seasons. We were hoping that they would lower the quota. My PH had repetedly suggested to parks that the quota be lowered for a couple seasons. Perhaps they(National Parks) are listining for once. With 5 units there with a quota of 3 lions and 1 lioness each year thats alot of pressure on them compounded with the lack of rain the past few years. Since lions come back fast it will help the problem.


There arnt many lions right now for alot of reasons and shooting a few less for a couple years will help the trophy quality and population. Now the real question here is will they enforce it or will the South Africans hunting there pay off the scouts at the local level and shoot the hell out of them. It wont make it to the corrupt guys in Harari they are to far removed. Nor does it have to do with any other B.S. in Zim. those troubles arnt related to this. Corruption wears many different hats.

I don't think that it is an issue of the quotas being to high. At the end of the day, it is the responsability of the PH and the outfitter he/she represents to decide how many lions to shoot out of their concession in a season. If you think your Gov quota for lion in your concession is too high then sell the quota YOU think is sustainable...

You know the decline in lions in Zim will be blaimed by the greenies on "hunting", over hunting.

Nitrox

that is their job isn't it?

LV Eric,
I was referring to Nitrox post about the greenies blaming over-hunting for the demise of the lions.

ALthough i agree in part to your opinion, I think that that is a very short sighted approach from the operator you describe. As operators are in it for the $$$ I also assume they are there for the long term if it is profitable. By not practicing these and other conservation strategies and managing their quota, they will not sell hunts for very long.....

Operators that employ "freelancing" ph's that show up the day before the client should make sure that these ph's obey certain company policies like not over shooting. It is in their own interest after all.

Bwanamich,

Over-hunting in Matetsi is one of many reasons for the lack of lions. The problem here is the greenies will over state the hunting presssure makeing it the only reason. There are many other reasons too they conveinently leave out. But they are right to an extent. One good thing is that they come back fast so a few years of a lesser quota can make a difference. Unlike black rhino which take forever to bounce back.

This isnt my opinion, it's how they do things there. It is short sighted by the GOVT to over shoot the population. The operators must shoot what they are given on the "fixed "quota to remain profitable. That isnt their choice they have to do it. The operators are on short leases with no guarentee of a "roll over" so they dont have an interest either is preserving the future either beyond their stay either. This is why Africa is a mess.


Over shooting a quota can result in the operator to loose their lease. Therefore it regulates it self, sorta. Your right, a ethical PH wont tolierate any such behavior even if it is encouraged by a scout looking for a payday. It isnt much of an issue with lions anyway. It happens more often with plains game.

Over-shooting quotas is highly unlikely, as the game scouts keep track of what is taken. That is the primary purpose of the scouts. The scouts have copies of the license and know what is going down. Yeah, there may be some that go on the take but in my experience they have all played by the book.

I can only speak for Tanzania where I have some experience....

Game scouts generally have no clue of the quota in a concession nor keep track of what is left from the original quota for any specie. Even if they do, a couple of $$$ will make them look the other way......Once again, it is up to the PH's to know what is left and what can and shouldn't be done.

I admit that things in Tanz are a little lax! On the other hand, I never tried any funny stuff when I was there, even though it seems almost accepted practice.



But in Zim, I have always seen it played by the book (except last year*) but then I never bribed anyone or tried to bride anyone either. That sort of thing can create no end of trouble.



* In a little cock-up last year a Parks Dept. game ranger (?) was subtley threatening some sort of legal retribution unless a bribe was forthcoming, even though we were perfectly in the right. As it turned out, the incident was dismissed by the Warden as it should have been. If one was gullible enough to try to bribe this ranger, we probably would have wound up being arrested for attempting to bribe a Parks Dept. "official."



I do not want anything to do with bribes.