Zimbabwe to Fund National Parks With Hundreds of Elephant Hunts
0 April 20, 2021 6:00 PM
Source: Zimbabwe to Fund National Parks With Hundreds of Elephant Hunts – Bloomberg



Nation has world’s second biggest elephant population
Revenue has been slashed by Covid-19-related travel bans
Zimbabwe plans to sell the right to shoot as many as 500 elephants for as much as $70,000 per animal to help fund the upkeep of its national parks.

The hunting season, which takes place over the southern hemisphere winter, will resume this year after the coronavirus pandemic scuppered plans to have elephants shot by foreign tourists in 2020.


Zimbabwe has the world’s second-biggest elephant population and neighboring Botswana has the largest. Both have been criticized by environmental groups for their plans to profit from elephant hunting. Botswana is resuming hunting after a five-year ban. Zambia and Namibia also have substantial elephant populations.

“How do we fund our operations, how do we pay our men and women who spend 20 days in the bush looking after these animals?” said Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, in an interview on April 17. “Those who are opposed to our management mechanism should instead be giving us the funding to manage better these animals.”

The right to shoot an elephant will cost between $10,000 and $70,000 depending on its size, he said. The parks authority is self funding and its revenue has also been slashed by the plunge in the number of the tourists. The elephants will be shot in hunting concessions rather than the parks frequented by photo-safari tourists.


An excessive number of elephants, Zimbabwe has close to 100,000, has also increased the number of accidents when people encounter them, he said. These include damage to crops and occasional fatalities when the elephants encounter people.

So far this year 1,000 complaints have been made to the authority compared with 1,500 in all of last year.

“The distress calls from the communities have been increasing due to human wildlife conflict,” Farawo said. “So far 21 people have lost their lives and last year 60 people.


The southern African country draws most of its hunters from U.S., Russia, Mexico and the European Union. In addition to paying for the license to kill the elephant the tourists pay professional hunters to guide them and have their trophies treated by taxidermists and exported back to their home countries.

Nice plan, but they’re dreaming.

kill the golden goose

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
kill the golden goose

I don't know. Scientists place the carrying capacity of the country at around 40,000. Zimbabwe clearly has far more than that. Actually more than double that.

Whether it happens or not is another story.

All, this is not anything new.

Zimbabwe has a CITES quota of 500 elephants. Zim is just doing what it always has, selling their existing elephant quota.

They are not selling any additional elephants over and above the CITES quota as far as I can tell.

And I'm sure 100% of the money will go to Parks.

The ZANU-PF retirement fund must need a cash infusion.

I hope they get them sold
Simply sucks not being able to bring them back because of politic and not reasonable thinking

On the other hand, Florida has no elk so are they endangered and on CITES. List?

quote:

Nice plan, but they’re dreaming.

Yep.

Safari 2 is correct- Zim is simply selling their allotted CITES approved TAGS - no more and no less

quote:

Originally posted by Buzz Charlton:
Safari 2 is correct- Zim is simply selling their allotted CITES approved TAGS - no more and no less

And why not as the quota has been established by the "experts" at CITES and if said quota is not accounted for, same quota may even foresee a reduction as a penalty.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202104240086.html


Zimbabwe: Natural Resource Group Blasts Govt Over 'Merciless' Elephant Trophy Hunts


24 APRIL 2021
New Zimbabwe (London)
By Robert Tapfumaneyi



THE CENTRE for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has called on government to rescind its decision to open the country to trophy hunters with over 500 elephants to be placed under its hunting quota.

The lobby group has advised the government to seek the support of international conservation organisations in finding additional resources to improve conservation.

The group has also called on authorities to be transparent, democratic and accountable with decision making processes that affect Zimbabwe's natural resources and the country's standing in the international community.



This week, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) said it was putting up over 500 elephants for trophy hunting to fund its operations, raising international condemnation from animal rights groups including CNRG.

A hunt costs between US$20 000 and US$50 000.

"The Government of Zimbabwe has been placing 500 elephants under a hunting quota for the past 30 years. This translates to about 15 000 elephants being killed by government licensed animal killers since 1991. Poaching has continued unabated despite trophy hunting under the guise of funding conservation," CNRG said in a statement.

"As CNRG, we believe that animals do not need to pay with their lives to ensure that their species are protected. It is the responsibility of the government to avail funds for the protection and conservation of biodiversity.

"Trophy hunting is an unethical practice that agitates elephants and other animals; and also leads to increased incidences of human wildlife conflict. Whilst elephants are generally peaceful animals, they retaliate if a member of their family is attacked, killed or injured.



"Elephants live as herds and they defend and protect each other like any other animal species that live as families. Killing one elephant has serious repercussions and can cause huge emotional distress to the entire herd. Whilst trophy hunters, armed with guns, are well-trained and also enjoy extra protection from rangers and evacuate after their temporary hunting escapades, it is the locals who bear the brunt of wildlife vengeance," it said.

It added the locals do not have anything to defend themselves with when elephants attack.

In 2020, at least 60 people were killed while 50 others were left injured by wild animals in Zimbabwe.

Zimparks received 1 500 distress calls in the same period. Elephants were responsible for 50% of the killings.



CNRG said hunters are merciless killers who target the biggest and grown elephants for their trophies.

"Thus, trophy hunting decimates impressive specimens leaving small and dwarfish ones. The placement of Zimbabwe's 500 elephants under a hunting quota exposes the country to the risk of remaining with inferior species which are unimpressive even to the tourists.

"According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the revered African elephant is now in the Red List of Threatened Species because of unilateral and undemocratic decisions like the one made by the Government of Zimbabwe. Whilst Zimbabwe boasts of a large elephant herd, estimated to be over 80 000, the population is at the mercy of government officials selling off baby elephants, poachers, climate change induced droughts, diseases and government licensed killers."

quote:

CNRG said hunters are merciless killers who target the biggest and grown elephants for their trophies.

The 500 elephants are an excess figure and need to be culled one way or another and could also be sold as non-trophy animals.

If the narrow-minded CRNG consider trophy hunters as "merciless killers" then let the rangers do it at the govt.'s expense as was conducted in former times by "herding" and from helicopters, shooting indiscriminately as long as the numbers were reached.