https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014...-zim-elephant-tusks/


Newsday article on Zimbabwe elephant import ban.

Canada has always in the past followed cities. I feel for my American brothers whose fish and wildlife service mind everyone's business but their own, at the detriment of many lives and lively hoods. And at the cost to American hunters.
Businesses will be lost, jobs for whites and blacks will be lost and the elephant will still get poisened, even more so without these watchdogs called Safari hunters. A sad day

http://www.zimbabwesituation.c...e-elephant-trophies/



US bans Zimbabwe elephant trophies
Posted on April 8, 2014 by ZimSitRep_


via US bans Zim elephant trophies | SW Radio Africa by Nomalanga Moyo on Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The United States has suspended imports of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe citing questionable management practices and a lack of effective law enforcement.

The ban follows a massive ecological disaster at Hwange National Park last year which saw hundreds of elephants being killed through cyanide poisoning by poachers.

In a statement on its website, the US wildlife department said: “Given the current situation on the ground in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the Service is unable to make positive findings required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Endangered Species Act to allow import of elephant trophies from these countries.

“Additional killing of elephants in these countries, even if legal, is not sustainable and is not currently supporting conservation efforts that contribute towards the recovery of the species.”

The ban, announced last week, is set to be welcomed by conservationists in Zimbabwe who have been campaigning for stringent measures to protect the country’s elephant herd.

Americans make up the majority of trophy hunters in Zimbabwe, exporting an average of 160 elephants per year.

The government has already responded by attacking the suspension, which Environment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere likened to “sanctions on the elephants”.

Environmental journalist Wisdom Mudzungairi said safari tour operators will be the biggest losers.

“From a business perspective, the ban is bad news for local operators as each trophy hunter can pay more than $100,000 per visit and this is a lot of money.

“The ban, announced so close to the start of the hunting season in May, means there will be very little revenue for those in the business,” Mudzungairi said.

Charles Jonga, a director at the Community Areas Management Programme for indigenous Resources (Campfire), told the NewsDay newspaper that this will be devastating for the communities that benefited from elephant conservation efforts.

However, Mudzungairi said this was an opportunity for the Zim government to strengthen mechanisms governing trophy hunting.

“And this should apply to all game species including lions. I think the opportunity was missed following the Hwange disaster where a few of those who were involved were arrested and even then, there were few prosecuting. This could have then forced the US government to act,” he added.

For many years there has been concern about the lack of transparency around the allocation of hunting licences. Land and hunting concessions have frequently been given to well connected political individuals, who have no experience in wildlife management. A 2012 report said that the ZANU PF controlled wildlife ministry had handed out a number of hunting licences to party cronies.

The US wildlife department said it will reevaluate the suspension next year or upon receipt of new information that demonstrates an improved situation for elephants in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/d...t-trade-ban-20140904


Zimbabwe decries US elephant trade ban
Wednesday 9 April 2014 17:31
Shingai Nyoka



Zimbabwe has described the US decision to ban the importation of hunted-elephant trophies, as a blow to its wildlife conservation programme.

America's Fish and Wildlife Services, has banned the importation into the US of trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania saying elephants in both countries are under siege.

At least 90 elephants are poached in Tanzania everyday while Zimbabwe lost close to 300 jumbos in a cyanide poisoning incident last year. Zimbabwe relies on hunting proceeds to fund national parks and community-based conservation efforts.

Environment and Wildlife Minister Saviour Kasukuwere says the country stands to lose R150 million as a result of the ban. Kasukuwere says it will affect to an extent the tourism sector and jobs. He says he don't think any well-meaning nation would want to impose such punitive measures against conservation efforts aimed at looking after the wildlife.

"I think it’s a serious contradiction because otherwise I think what this will do is to give a rise to underhand methods like poaching, and this is not what we want to see happen," says Kasukuwere.

The US says questionable management practices and weak governance have caused significant decline in Zimbabwe and Tanzania's elephant populations and that even legal killing is not sustainable. It's a stance that has Zimbabwe on the defensive. The Wildlife ministry says, it moved swiftly to arrest the elephant poaching, jailing offenders and reducing poaching elephant poaching statistics to single digits.

The country's private conservancies owned mainly by Zimbabwe's white farmers will be the worst affected. However some local conservationists have welcomed the ban criticising the hunting and wildlife management practices.

The Safari Club international a powerful international lobby representing hunters has vowed to fight the ban calling on the US to rescind its decision or lose elephant's forever. The US meanwhile says it will reevaluate the decision in 2015.

http://www.swradioafrica.com/2...-to-us-ban-on-tusks/



Illegal allocation of hunting licenses linked to US ban on tusks
Posted by admin on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 in Wildlife

Wealthy hunters from the US come to Zimbabwe and like to take trophies back with them
By Alex Bell
SW Radio Africa
9 April 2014

The unlawful allocation of hunting licenses in Zimbabwe in recent years has been pegged as a major factor in the decision by the United States to ban hunted elephant trophies.

The US wildlife department announced last week that it was suspending the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania, citing questionable management practices and a lack of effective law enforcement.

In a statement on its website, the US wildlife department said: “Given the current situation on the ground in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the Service is unable to make positive findings required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Endangered Species Act to allow import of elephant trophies from these countries.”

It added: “Additional killing of elephants in these countries, even if legal, is not sustainable and is not currently supporting conservation efforts that contribute towards the recovery of the species.”

The ban comes of the back of the poaching crisis that hit Hwange National Park last year, where hundreds of elephants were killed by poachers using the deadly cyanide chemical. The ban also comes amid a fresh threat to Zimbabwe’s protected Presidential Elephant Herd, after the takeover of a piece of land in Hwange that serves as the herd’s home range.

That takeover defies a Cabinet directive from last year that the land was ‘state owned’ and all offer letters for it must be withdrawn. Conservation groups meanwhile have raised concern for the safety of the Presidential elephants, because the woman who has claimed the land is related to a local hunting operator.

Johnny Rodrigues, the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) told SW Radio Africa that the ZANU PF government’s history of illegally handing out land claims and hunting permits to party officials and loyalists means the entire hunting business in Zimbabwe has fallen into disrepute. The ZCTF warned that in recent months hunting permits have been handed out along the lines of the country’s indigenisation laws. Rodrigues said this leads to untrained, unregulated hunting operators acting in an unsustainable manner.

“A lot of hunters do hunting in an ethical manner, and they plow a lot back into conservation. But the uncontrollable way in which a person who has no experience in hunting, suddenly gets issued permits to have hunting, is a real problem,” Rodrigues said.

National Parks in 2012 year issued hunting permits to 25 so-called indigenous ‘farmers’ who were given land in the wildlife-rich Save Valley Conservancy in the Lowveld. This was said to be part of the government’s ‘wildlife based land reform’ exercise, saying beneficiaries have been allocated 25-year land leases in conservancies throughout the Masvingo province.

Included in the list of beneficiaries were top ZANU PF officials and loyalists, including war vets leader Joseph Chinotimba, Major General Gibson Mashingaidze, Major General Engelbert Rugeje, Masvingo Governor Titus Maluleke, then ZANU PF Masvingo provincial chair Lovemore Matuke, then Deputy Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora, ZANU PF’s central committee member Enock Porusingazi, as well as ZANU PF MPs Alois Baloyi, Abraham Sithole, Samson Mukanduri and Noel Mandebvu.

ZANU PF’s Environment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has since likened the US ban on Zim elephant trophies to “sanctions on the elephants”.

Rodrigues said this position was hardly surprising, because top party officials are involved in the majority of hunting operations across the country.

“For years the very wealthy people in America have been coming to Zim to hunt, and then you have the top dogs in Zimbabwe who own most of the hunting concessions, and they’re going to feel the pinch now and they can’t be as greedy as they were,” Rodrigues said.

He meanwhile added that things like photographic tourism would be of more benefit to Zimbabwe in the long term.

“If we had the tourism coming into the country, it would generate ten times the amount that hunting generates,” Rodriques said.

To contact this reporter email alex@swradioafrica.com or follow on Twitter

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:

“If we had the tourism coming into the country, it would generate ten times the amount that hunting generates,” Rodriques said.

Yeah right!!

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:

ZANU PF’s Environment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has since likened the US ban on Zim elephant trophies to “sanctions on the elephants”.

This will probably be the one and only time I will ever agree with anything ZANU PF says. The reality is that the statement above is spot on.

Please take a look at this thread?

http://forums.accuratereloadin...1411043/m/5321024991

http://www.eswr.com/docs/cts/d...942-RCL-op-10611.pdf


Does the "Mozambique case" set a precedent for allowing USFWS to deny elephant ivory imports?