ZimConservation

Two Zimbabwean police officers who were last year arrested after being found in possession of ivory in Botswana have been released to the Zimbabwean government. The recent developments come in the wake of a diplomatic tiff between Botswana and Zimbabwe, which saw two Botswana wildlife officials being arrested by Zimbabwean police for straying into Zimbabwean territory while armed. More online at the Sunday Standard…

HARARE — Zimbabwe and Botswana officials are to meet this week to resolve a diplomatic stand-off over the detention of three Botswanan game rangers who strayed across the border, state media reported on Sunday. Botswana has threatened to recall its defence and intelligence envoys from Zimbabwe by end February over what it called Harare’s “rebuff” of efforts to resolve the spat since the rangers were arrested tracking animals last month. More online at AFP /Google…

Botswana says it is recalling two senior diplomats based in Harare in protest against the detention of three wildlife officers in Zimbabwe. The government of Botswana said it would withdraw its intelligence and defence attaches. It also asked Zimbabwean intelligence officers to leave Botswana. The diplomatic row began three weeks ago with the arrest of three Batswana gamekeepers who had strayed across the border while tracking a lion. Botswana has been one of the few neighbours of Zimbabwe to criticise the human rights record of President Robert Mugabe. More online at the BBC…

New measures to conserve and manage sustainably bluefin tuna, elephants, and a wide range of sharks, corals, reptiles, insects and plants have been proposed by governments attending the next world conference of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Over 40 proposals will be decided on at the conference, in Doha, Qatar, from March 13 to 25, the CITES Secretariat said in a news statement today. Some governments will propose to lift CITES regulations on some species, underlining the success of CITES in key areas, CITES added. More online at the National Geographic…

HARARE – Zimbabwean officials are unhappy that CITES chief Willem Wijnstekers will tour a top private game conservancy during his visit to Zimbabwe next week, apparently fearful he will end up learning too much about wanton poaching decimating the country’s wildlife, sources told ZimOnline Thursday. The CITES secretary general is expected in Harare on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, Attorney General Johannes Tomana, police chief Augustine Chihuri and commissioner of taxes Geshom Pasi. More online at ZimOnline…

GABORONE, 04th February 2010 – The Government of Botswana wishes to express its deep disappointment over the detention of the three wildlife officers in Zimbabwe despite attempts at finding an amicable diplomatic solution. Efforts by Botswana have included phone calls by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hon. Phandu Skelemani and the Botswana Police Commissioner, Mr. Thebeyame Tsimako to their counterparts in Zimbabwe to resolve this issue. These phone calls remain unreturned, giving the impression that the Government of Zimbabwe does not want to discuss this issue with Botswana. More online at the Botswana Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation…

Cape Town – The future of the Mapungubwe transfrontier park in Limpopo is in the balance, after government approved mining rights in the area to Australian mining group CoAL Africa. CoAL Africa announced on Tuesday it was awarded a licence by the deparment of minerals to set up an opencast coal mine and a power station, called Vele coal mine/Mulilo power station, in the buffer zone of the ecologically sensitive and culturally valuable Mapungubwe. The park borders on Botswana and Zimbabwe. It is also a transfrontier park – the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (with Botswana and Zimbabwe) – and has been officially recognised as a World Heritage site by Unesco. More online at FIN24…

ITV1’s new ‘Lion Country’ series is putting Zimbabwe’s magnificent wildlife back on the tourist map while highlighting its unique Big Cat conservation efforts. The six-part series follows the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust’s (ALERT) admirable efforts to help reverse the decline in the number of wild African lions. With reports indicating that their numbers have dropped by as much as 80% in the last 50 years, the series follows the non-profit organisation’s initiative to reintroduce captive-bred lions to the wild. More online at Easier Travel…

The three Botswana wildlife officers arrested in Zimbabwe for illegal entry into the country will have to wait for a while before they can gain their freedom, it has emerged. The three, who are detained at Victoria Falls, were supposed to appear for trial yesterday but it never commenced because the prosecutors had gone to fetch state witnesses in Kazungula, Botswana’s ambassador in Zimbabwe, Gladys Kokorwe said yesterday. She said at the time of the interview that she had spoken to her officers at noon but the trial had not commenced. More online at Mmegi Online…

Harare — ENVIRONMENTAL researchers have predicted that in the next couple of years Southern African countries will take a severe battering from climatic change, which will inevitably halve agricultural production and leave millions vulnerable to food deficits in a region where 70 percent of the population are smallholder farmers. “Southern Africa will be seriously affected by climate change. Agriculture and bio-diversity will be among the hardest hit,” Dr Constansia Musvoto, researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, told members of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions at the organisation’s policy conference in South Africa last year. More online at AllAfrica.com…

Efforts by the government of Botswana to free three wildlife officers who were arrested in Zimbabwe last week have not been successful. This has forced the Botswana Government to engage legal representation for the said officers. Since the arrest, both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Botswana Embassy in Harare have tried all the diplomatic channels to gain freedom of those arrested. More online at The Botswana Gazette…

A diplomatic row could erupt between Zimbabwe and neighboring Botswana after three armed officers from the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) were arrested for straying into Zimbabwe. The three armed scouts were nabbed last week in Kazungula close to Victoria Falls after they crossed into Zimbabwe by “mistake while tracking lions that had killed two cows in Lesoma village along the border”. By this morning, they were still locked up at Victoria Falls police station. The Botswana High Commissioner in Harare, Gladys Kokorwe said her office has been notified of the arrest and that she is working ’flat out to secure their release”. A defence lawyer to represent the scouts was being sought this morning. More online at Afrik.com…

BRITAIN will vote against the proposed sale of stockpiled ivory from Tanzania and Zambia, which conservationists fear would lead to further slaughter of African elephants, the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said last night. After a day in which opposition spokesmen called for an explicit statement on Britain’s position, Benn made it unequivocally clear that the UK would oppose the proposed sale, which will be voted on at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar in March. More online at The Post Online…

Kenya Minister for Wildlife and Forestry, Dr. Noah Wekesa, launched a scathing remark here Tuesday against Tanzania and Zambia, accusing them of breaching a nine-year moratorium on elephant conservation. Wekesa said the two elephant range states’ latest push for down-listing their elephant herds from the category of species threatened with extinction to enable them dispose of their illegal ivory stocks is likely to escalate poaching in the region. Consequently, Kenya, backed by Mali, has launched an aggressive campaign for support of the European Union (EU) to retain the African elephant species in CITES a ppendix I ” the list of floral and faunal species threatened with extinction. UN came up with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of wild fauna and flora to protect organisms that were endangered by human encroachment. More online at Afrique en ligne…

Kenya has secured the support of 16 African governments in its battle with neighbouring Tanzania over a proposal to allow for controlled trade in ivory. At least two thirds of the 23 member African Elephants Coalition are backing Kenya’s proposal to replace the nine-year moratorium on ivory trade, which ends in 2019 with a 20-year moratorium. More online at Business Daily Africa…

Three officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) are still detained in Zimbabwe after they crossed into the country by mistake last week. The armed Botswana officers, travelling in a government vehicle, were tracking lions that had killed two cows in Lesoma village along the border between the two countries. The Botswana High Commissioner in Zimbabwe, Gladys Kokorwe said yesterday that the matter has been reported to her office and that the officers were supposed to appear in court for mention yesterday afternoon. More online at Mmegi Online…

KASANE – Three Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DNWP) game scouts based in Kasane have been detained in Zimbabwe for trespassing and having fire arms.
Kazungula Police Station Commander, Assistant Superintendent Chakalisa Nkoni said that the three men were caught along Kazungula/ Lesoma road on Tuesday. Ass. Sup. Nkoni explained that the men aged between 27 and 34 were on duty tracking down lions which had earlier killed two cows at Lesoma. He said the three were driving a government vehicle and had with them two government firearms. The men are reported to have got lost on their hunt and were caught by Zimbabwean police. More online at BOPA Daily News…

Despite opposition from neighbours Kenya and Rw anda, the Tanzanian government said Monday it was seeking permission from the UN panel overseeing the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to auction 90 tonnes of ivory piled up in its storage buildings. Trade in ivory has been banned or restricted in many countries due to the rapid decline in elephant populations around the world. More online at African Manager…

Britain urged to oppose demands from Tanzania and Zambia to lift ban on tusk sales / Conservationists fear the move would intensify slaughter of elephants

Two African countries are trying to open a new breach in the worldwide ivory trade ban, which conservationists fear could lead to more African elephants being slaughtered by poachers. Environmental campaigners called on Britain to take a clear lead in opposing the proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to sell their ivory stocks, which will be voted on at the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar in March. More online at The Independent…

A top member of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) visits Kariba and is shocked to discover how drunk and ill-behaved youngsters are being allowed to trash one of the country’s most important game conservancies – all for the love of cash. (Pictured: Buffalo – Only 65 of these left at Charara from the 96 that were recorded last year). In this account the ZCTF members also gives details of reported cases of illegal hunting to show how Zimbabwe’s wildlife is being laid to waste by a few but very powerful individuals motivated by greedy: On the 21st of December, we went to Kariba and stayed at Nzou Lodges, close to the NAU Charara site where the infamous party takes place. We never take a radio or a TV there because it seems almost sacrilegious to disturb the peacefulness and natural silence of the bush with music. Until the 29th of December, there were very few people there and it was wonderful to sit quietly listening to the beautiful sounds of nature. We were very lucky because there was a herd of 11 bull elephants in the vicinity for the duration of our stay and every night, we were treated to a visit from one or two of these majestic beasts, walking right past our cottage. more online at The Zimbabwean…