This area was quite nice ten years ago, how is it now and who runs it?

Nick it was probably Zims best area at one stage. It is run by Parks as we talk and end of season last year our learner hunter proficiency was done there. 4 groups hunted hard for 4 days and shot 1 impala. After 4 days they cancelled the proficiency- that will explain to you how bad it is now- an actual crime to be honest!

I hunted chirisa in September 2014. I was surprised by the number of plains game we saw. We saw lots of warthog, impala, kudu, bushbuck, duiker, grysbok and waterbuck, and some zebra, reedbuck, klipspringer and eland. However, there was worse off when it came DG. We tracked and saw some smaller herds of buffalo, but not one single hard bossed bull within 10 days. There was plenty of elephants tracks, but we saw none. Some leopard tracks, no sign of lion.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...431065402#6431065402

Sad, it was very nice in 2004. Saw plenty of buff and Ele ( one particular big tusker) but no tusk less to be found.
Looking at it on "google earth" with all the farms surrounding it it is easy to see that the pressure from poaching could be extreme

Found these two in snares.



But what a beautiful area!

Kevin Thomas wrote it up for Man Magnum a year or so back. It was an outstanding area at one time. I can remember during the bush war, once watching a herd of 40+ roan just meander across the road. Sadly, no more. It just needs to be given a break.

Chirisa been leased / allocated to "sitatunga safaris" by parks authority. Chete been leased to someone close to the "first family".

The tragedy of it is zim parks turned down proposals from a very well funded, conservation minded company. They proposed a 5 year no hunting clause in their projects, with a huge financial investment of circa $1 million in the initial 5 year period , new vehicles and equipment, immediate anti poaching to be implemented , translocation of buffalo,kudu,eland,zebra etc to bolster game numbers, and in the case of chirisa, fencing off the southern boundary with the communal farming area, in exchange they requested a long term lease of minimum 20 years to nurture the area back to its original splendor of the early 1980's.

The zim parks senior directors responsible for area allocations turned all this down for a company that was to start hunting in year one... Signs of the times, politics comes into play, zim parks do not give a damn about conservation, all they are interested in is us$ at the expense of our flora and fauna.

Then are baffled when bans/import restrictions are placed on Zimbabwe wildlife.Until such time as experienced and qualified people take the reigns, we are in serious trouble . The only meaningful conservation efforts are those privately funded, working in conjunction with zim parks. Bhejan Trust, Tashinga Initiative MAPP etc..

Isn't Sitatunga Safaris a South African entity?

one of the directors of Sitatunga safaris is known to be very close to our once environment minister Mr Francis Nhema. As far as we know it is a Zimbabwe registered company. There may well be a South African company with the same name.Ingwe safaris from dande south, often was confused with South African "ingwe safaris". We will do some research and see what turns up.

I believe the South African version was active in the Save on one of the seized parcels. Thus my question.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I believe the South African version was active in the Save on one of the seized parcels. Thus my question.

I have heard the same - South Africa outfitters tied with blacklisted zim locals selling hunts in save.

The save operators are very well know - if a new entity is offering hunts in save I would run as far as possible from them.

Mike

A special area for me as it is where I had my first hunt in 2008.I would describe it as a classic area.

I hunted there in 2013, pursuing elephant and buffalo. I saw exactly one bull buffalo(and shot him)on day 13 of a 14 day hunt.The first 12 days were spent following elephant tracks, the only bull elephant seen, but we did see quite a few cows, had tusk about a foot long. Don't think I want to go back there again.

quote:

Originally posted by Buzz Charlton:
Nick it was probably Zims best area at one stage. It is run by Parks as we talk and end of season last year our learner hunter proficiency was done there. 4 groups hunted hard for 4 days and shot 1 impala. After 4 days they cancelled the proficiency- that will explain to you how bad it is now- an actual crime to be honest!

What a bloody shame!

Saeed- it really is. I have very fond memories of Chirisa where I hunted for a season. Seeing several hundred buff and uncountable zebra coming into Sapani pan every day,( non hunting pan for 1 km round) was a sight to behold.

There were several major reasons for the down fall of Chirisa some been the following:

1/Uncontrollable ration hunting by Parks
2/Chisarira National Park which was on the border with Chirisa and "fed" it as such was poached out BEFORE Chirisa
3/Sengwa research ( which was another border to chirisa) was exactly that with no hunting-this also used to "feed" Chirisa. It has been a hunting area now for quite some time - well run and managed by the Duckworths I might add)
4/If you look on Google earth the population densities bordering right on to the Chirisa is unbelievable.

Despite saying the population densities have played a major role in the demise of Chirisa , which they have, other areas have a similar if not worse situation with populations. For example the SAVE - there is not a tree outside the Park yet they have made it work and work well.

What Chirisa desperately needs is a situation where someone with serious capital gets a long lease with initially no hunting like "Zimbabwe Wildlife Conservation" mentioned and then not to have Politics "dirty hand" involved. While the land is still there there is hope as wildlife can be reintroduced and breed well given the chance. However I can assure you with out protection and the law up holding the boundaries Chirisa will be in no time an extension of the communal lands that surround it.

I hunted it in 2007. There were lots of buff and ele. The PG besides impala, waterbuck and bushbuck were slim. We ran into poachers regularly, we found tons of snares, and Parks had people out shooting ration buffalo on a few occasions while we were there as Buzz mentioned. I could see it was definitely on the decline. Sengwa Research was still a sanctuary and you could look across and see tons of game back then. It just goes to show how quickly an area can be virtually wiped out. So sad...

I would like to go back there some time.The area is wonderful and makes you really feel like you are on safari.Nothing I experienced yet can compare to a morning or evening campfire there.

This thread is incredibly sad, Hard to believe it has literally all disappeared. I took my first safari there in November 2011 and it was an incredible place. Bull elephants walking in the riverbed below camp. Buffalo everywhere. Lions spotted several times on my trip, and a leopard that walked right past the patio pool, which is now dry in the post above. Waterbuck, zebra and warthogs in abundance.

This photo was taken from the same outcropping as Torbjorns photo several posts above this one. There were 148 buffalo in this one herd!



Here is my hunt report and photos of the camp when it was flourishing.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...043/m/2261089761/p/1

Very sad. I was there in the 90's. It was a paradise.

These fools wreck everything they touch.

quote:

Originally posted by Buzz Charlton:
However I can assure you with out protection and the law up holding the boundaries Chirisa will be in no time an extension of the communal lands that surround it.

Absolutely, this is exactly what is happening at the Citizen hunting area of Hartly Safari Area

This area, and others, need to be privatized.

This is why my friends, that it is very very difficult to argue with USFW. They are correct!!!

With the help of a few select white people, who only Graham Hingeston I will point out, Zim Parks has allowed the wholesale slaughter of its prime areas. Chete is another example!

Sad indeed!!! Sickening is more like it!

How we supposed to combat the antis with this cod swallop going on.

Graham will have a lot to answer for when Gabriel blows his horn.

quote:

The tragedy of it is zim parks turned down proposals from a very well funded, conservation minded company. They proposed a 5 year no hunting clause in their projects, with a huge financial investment of circa $1 million in the initial 5 year period , new vehicles and equipment, immediate anti poaching to be implemented , translocation of buffalo,kudu,eland,zebra etc to bolster game numbers, and in the case of chirisa, fencing off the southern boundary with the communal farming area, in exchange they requested a long term lease of minimum 20 years to nurture the area back to its original splendor of the early 1980's.

Just a note on the above.

This was a legit offer by a friend of mine. Sad but no one there f***ing cares anymore.

We have to continue to support CM Safaris, Martin Pieters and the Duckworths if any area is going to last.

Maybe we could make up an Accurate Reloading approved list of Safari Companies that are acting responsibly for the long term and funding anti-poaching activities.

These communities need to lobby Government to remove the authority of Zim Parks from Chirisa. Then declare it a conservancy.

In Zambia there is a trend to convert communal lands to Perpetual title (not for sale) that guarantees private sector partnerships, investor security and long term leases.

However it is the communal land lords who have to take this initiative.

quote:

Originally posted by GunsCore:
We have to continue to support CM Safaris, Martin Pieters and the Duckworths if any area is going to last.

Maybe we could make up an Accurate Reloading approved list of Safari Companies that are acting responsibly for the long term and funding anti-poaching activities.

Not a bad idea. AR has plenty of power in the hunting community. Should an outfit do good they could easily be rewarded.

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by GunsCore:
We have to continue to support CM Safaris, Martin Pieters and the Duckworths if any area is going to last.

Maybe we could make up an Accurate Reloading approved list of Safari Companies that are acting responsibly for the long term and funding anti-poaching activities.

Not a bad idea. AR has plenty of power in the hunting community. Should an outfit do good they could easily be rewarded.

You mean slap a blanket ban on wildlife exports and dissolve incentives to protect natural resources?

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by GunsCore:
We have to continue to support CM Safaris, Martin Pieters and the Duckworths if any area is going to last.

Maybe we could make up an Accurate Reloading approved list of Safari Companies that are acting responsibly for the long term and funding anti-poaching activities.

Not a bad idea. AR has plenty of power in the hunting community. Should an outfit do good they could easily be rewarded.

You mean slap a blanket ban on wildlife exports and dissolve incentives to protect natural resources?

No.
We vote with our respective currencies to support those outfitters who are acting for the long term benefit of wildlife. It is expensive for a Safari company to have to run their own anti-poaching units and it will cost us more to hunt with them, but it will benefit us all in the long term.

It is easy to say that have the outfitter charge the client more for a hunt to include anti poaching but is this the real problem with an area that becomes depleted? One might ask has the outfitter and gov. officials been respecting quota tolerances for the area and if so how much if any of the investors profits were put back into the area as in the creation of water holes,anti poaching,etc...

In all honesty, during the Zimbabwe dollar free fall era many operators capitalised on the "extra quota" to generate extra money. And yes not every operator ploughed much money back into their areas. Due in part to the then short "5" year leases issued to operators by Zimbabwe parks authority. On the flip side, operators also paid a concession fee yearly, based on 30% of the value of the fixed quota. Which originally was meant to accrue to the safari area in question, to be used for general maintenance and upkeep of the area by the parks station, sadly this fell away in the free fall of the ZW$ dollar era.

Take for example In 2008 at the height of the "madness" a government concession holder was paying the equivalent of us$20 for a buffalo bull ( given the black market rate of exchange ZW$ 'vs' the us$, against the "official bank rates of exchange") and at that time an average buffalo trophy fee in Zimbabwe was circa us$2500-2750 . So yes for a period it was good business for a concession holder, it's no wonder political heavy weights became partners in various well known hunting operations, without them you didn't have a chance in hell at getting a concession.

Then we "dollarised"....which turned the system on its head. The end result speaks for itself sadly.