This from zwnews.com

author/source:Pretoria News (SA)
published:Wed 27-Apr-2005

President Robert Mugabe's regime has directed national parks officials to kill animals in state-owned conservation areas to feed hungry rural peasants - a move that could wipe out what remains of Zimbabwe's impalas, kudus, giraffes, elephants and other species. The directive is a major blow to efforts by conservationists to try to rehabilitate the wildlife sector which was devastated after Mugabe ordered his supporters to invade and confiscate white-owned farms in 2000. The chaotic farm invasions saw party militants storming into conservation areas - both private and state-owned - to slaughter animals. Unscrupulous South African hunters also joined in the looting, paying hefty kickbacks to politicians to go into conservation areas and shoot lions, leopards and cheetahs for trophies. But because of the general abundance of certain species of wildlife in southern Zimbabwe and the establishment of the transfrontier park, which allows animals from Mozambique and South Africa's world-famous Kruger National Park to move freely into and out of Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou (home of the elephants) National Park, there have been high hopes among conservationists that Zimbabwe's wildlife sector could be restored to its former glory.

This now appears highly unlikely as Zimbabwe's department of national parks and wildlife management, the custodian of this embattled country's wild animals, has been given the green light to work with rural district councils to kill animals to feed more than four-million hungry rural Zimbabweans. National Parks officials said the recent shootings of 10 elephants for barbecue meat at festivities to mark Zimbabwe's 25 years of independence around the country had been carried out in the broad context of the directive to kill animals to feed the hungry, particularly those living within the vicinity of national parks. The 10 elephants were killed by National Park rangers. Four of the giant animals were reportedly shot in full view of tourists near Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba, a major haven for wildlife. Zimbabwean conservationists have been particularly scathing about the killings of the elephants for independence celebrations. Rural peasants in Zimbabwe have sold or fed on their own livestock in the past three years of unprecedented hunger, induced by Mugabe's chaotic land seizures.

National Parks officials say many of the peasants living in areas bordering National Parks have already been venturing into these parks to hunt and kill animals using snares. But they said the impact of snare hunting by the villagers was limited compared to what would happen if armed National Parks rangers were allowed to enter conservation areas to kill for meat to feed millions of hungry peasants. "Killing of animals for any reasons other than conservation can be very disastrous," said one National Parks official. "The politicians think we have enough animals to feed people without wiping out different species. We as professionals don't think so. We are talking to them (the politicians) and we hope we will reach consensus on protecting our wildlife heritage." Other government officials said Mugabe was so happy about his rural constituency which ensured him a majority of seats in last month's parliamentary elections that he wanted to do everything to please the peasants.

Very sad

Zimbabwe (and Mugabe) seems to be following the Haitian model to economic "prosperity".

-Bob F.

What a sadness!!!

If this is true the end cant be far behind. What a shame.

Scorched earth policy.Meant to bridge the time until he dies.Then who cares attitude.What else is new from a politician

Hardly surprising.

You can always count on them to take the low road.

It's the hungry rural peasants who should kill Mugabe.

I don't ever trust the press on anything - but if this is true, it poses some very interesting questions.....some relating to other recent threads on this forum and some relating to the future of government hunting areas and even how other governments will react.......I'd be very interested to hear what Ganyana has to say on this as he's the expert - but I believe he's away for a few days at least......perhaps Jim, Mickey or someone else from SCI might like to comment on the SCI attitude to the situation.........

I wonder what the hungry peasants view would be ?

quote:

Originally posted by JOEYBONES:
I wonder what the hungry peasants view would be ?

What Robber Bob filets would taste like?

-Steve

I'm really surprised someone hasn't taken a shot at old Uncle Bob. If that article is true, this is the beginning of the end for the safari business in Zimbabwe. SAD!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Tembo:
I'm really surprised someone hasn't taken a shot at old Uncle Bob. If that article is true, this is the beginning of the end for the safari business in Zimbabwe. SAD!!!

You should see Bob's security escort. We flew into Harare airport on a charter from camp just before Bob left. His air security was a military helicopter and two identical civilian helicopters (so you couldn't tell which one he was in). His ground security was composed of motorcylce cops, multiple Mercedes and two trucks of heavily armed military.

Regards,

Terry

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2005/April/Friday22/2179.html

Looks like Bob announced his retirement date. I hope there is still a Zimbabwe left by then.

Hopefully the article is purely propoganda and the slaughter of Zimbabwe's wildlife won't happen.

I can see why ration hunts would be a far greater concern for Zim Parks.

Can we get any confirmation on this? It seems way over the top, considering the pro conservation/ safari industry statements seen here and elsewhere right after the election.

This has been a constant proposal for years.

Fact we have 30,000 elephant too many. At an average of 300kg's of dried meat per animal, that would feed a lot of people. Unfortunately the infrastructual capacity to undertake such a cull has gone. It is not just the shooting of the animals, it is the butchering, collecting the skin and tusks, salting and drying the meat...

We have/had to 30 tonne elephant processing machines that were built by a mad Irishman in the late 80's. Chop elephants head off, Use fitted crane to pick up elephant and lower it into the container, and in 20 miunites you had sik pannels of skin, 4 feet, a pile of bones (ready to go to the sugar refinery - ask your local sugar people how they make brown sugar white!) and the meat cut into long thin strips.

Liam is ong dead, and the machines canabalised to keep other things working since the last cull in '93...

In '95 we had drought and mass starvation in the tribal areas along lake kariba. But the lake had filled (from good rains in Zambia and Congo) and we had 1500 buffalo starving as the floodplain and all their grass was under water.

Parks proposed that we shoot 500 buffalo and distribute the bodies to the surounding villagers and to ease the pressure on the remaining grass.

But who was going to pay for this work? Ammo is expensive, fuel short, parks vehicles in a shocking state of repair...

So the villagers got on with starving and 1000+ buffalo died along the edge of the lake to be eaten by lions and crocs.

I belive that the same will happen with the proposed cculls this year. We have planned, Budgeted etc to shoot 5000 ele. We won't. We cannot do it even though everybody from parks/WWF ecologists are screaming for it to happen, CITES has said (a reluctant) OK, the politicians want food for the people... The institutional infrastructure is too far gone.

Gayana-

Why does Parks not privatize the whole cull operation? If you need to cull 5,000 ele why not put it out for bid? I am sure there are people out there willing to pay for the chance to put a dent in the population. This would remove the cost (ammo, fuel etc) problem from the equation and the money could be use to transport the meat to where it is needed and to supplement Parks budget.

dBltap Why?
Pride, Arogance! ...and the fact that the last time we tried to put it out to tender, the only guys capable of actually doing the job right wanted US$1500 per elephant to do the work and then we would have to process the meat, hides etc.

There isn't enough salt in Zim to do the 1000 ele's that will be shot by sport hunters and PAC this year and there is no hard cash to import more... Hey, outside of the capital you haven't been able to buy petrol (gass) for the last month, salt is low on the priority list.

We would need an outside company to come in, but with the world price of hide being so low and government wanting the meat as cheeply as possible to feed people... you are not going to make money out of the recovery process. Believe me. Speedy Holden rounded up Mike LaGrange, Tim Paulette, Chris Pakenham, Ken Worsley and a couple of the other experienced but not as well known culling officers (Clem Coetzee wanted no part) and did all the sums 6 years back when hide was worth more than the ivory and still reconed you couldn't come out.- and he ain't called speedy for nothing!

Ganyana-

Thanks for the response, I appreciate your time. Now for probably an even dumber question. Why not give the PH's and unlimited number (up to 5,000) of elephants? Make it part of the license that they have to get the meat somewhere. If this is a conservation issue (too many elephants) and a hunger issue (not enough food) could the hides just rot and get the two main goals accomplished? You must have the patience of Job.

At the risk of looking dumber-er...

I have always wondered when various countries have had to do culls, why they did not try to put the 5000 (or whatever) Elephant as part of the game quota for that year at reduced trophy fees? Maybe sell them as cull hunts??

What would be so wrong about making sport hunters pay for everything? Maybe even turn a profit, or at the very least be able to pay the meat distribution expenses?

Proper scientific Elephant culling is a job for experts- it doesn't matter how much experience of Elephant hunting a sport hunter has, it won't make him a culler. - I don't know what Ganyana thinks and I'd be very interested to know but (IMO) there are very few experienced Elephant cullers still around.

You might like to read Ron Thompson's books on the subject-----not only are they a good read they're also full of useful info.

Elephants are very interesting animals with very complicated social structures and the more one learns about them the more interesting they become - three other good books on the subject are:

When Elephants Weep by James Masson
Silent Thunder by Katy Payne
Africa's Elephant by Martin Meredith

There's plenty more but those 3 are particularly interesting.......

Wes,

It's because culling is not hunting--it's organized slaughter where entire herds, all family groups, including cows and calves, are shot wholesale. That's how it has to be done to be effective.

It's extremely difficult and dangerous work to kill off an entire herd of 30+ elephants in just a few minutes--and that is the time within which it must be done to assure success.

Ron Thomson's book, "Mahohboh," explains all of this in great detail and with much understanding of the science involved and the skills required of the shooters.

Ganyana's posts really emphasize how utterly hopeless this Zim situation is becoming for the average citizen.

To think that things are so bad there that the killing of game for food--whether you agree with it or not--and in the case of elephant culling it certainly does seem to be necessary--cannot be accomplished.

Edited--I see that Steve and I posted at the same time. Either great minds think alike or fools seldom differ!

Let's go for the former shall we?

I think I got the gist of it...

High volume elephant shooting + inexperienced sport hunter = Very bad accidents just waiting to happen.

This is logic I can certainly follow and respect.

Now on to book hunting to expand my vicarious knowledge base.

.

Zimbabwe Issue: (from SCI)

SCI's African Contractor has been busy as well. Dr. George Pangeti is currently setting up a conference to discuss the latest issues from Zimbabwe. News reports from Africa indicate that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has ordered soldiers out into the fields to kill as many animals as possible to obtain meat for the poor and starving in the Zimbabwe countryside. This is on the heels of an incident where 10 elephants were killed in front of eco-tourists near a hotel, in an effort to provide enough food for a Zimbabwe Independence Day celebration last week. There is conflicting information, indicating that there was only one incident, the one involving the elephants.

Dr. Pangeti will organize a meeting on May 7th involving groups representing the National Parks, WWF, IUCN and ART to establish exactly what is happening. We will keep SCI members apprised of this situation as it progresses.