ZimConservation

A local Board in Zimbabwe’s mining town of Hwange has hired a professional hunter to track down and kill baboons for reportedly causing havoc in residential suburbs, the board’s technical committee chairman, Councillor Andrew Mupande, has said.

In an interview with our correspondent in Hwange, south-west Zimbabwe, he said following complaints from residents that baboons were now a menace, as they break into houses to steal food, the board approached the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to deal with the problem. More online at The Zimdiaspora…

Parks public relations officer Edward Mbewe said an African Wildlife Consultative Forum, aimed at pressing for the lifting of the ban, had been set up.

“Culling of elephants is prohibited under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and we formed this forum to fight this ban,” he said.

The forum includes Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia, among others. More online at The Southern Times…

Addressing delegates at a law enforcement-training workshop hosted by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Tom Millken, director, Traffic East/Southern Africa (TESA), called on all southern African countries to increase exchange programmes on the curbing of illegal wildlife trafficking in the region.

“Countries in the Southern African Development Community region have similar problems as far as illegal wildlife trafficking is concerned, this therefore signals the need for greater co-operation and increased idea sharing between wildlife law enforcement bodies from all countries in the region,” said Millken. More online at The Southern Times…

Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director general Morris Mtsambiwa said the elephant herd ‘ now at an estimated 100 000 ‘ was growing especially in protected areas such as Sebakwe, Zambezi Valley and the South East Lowveld.

“When the last national survey was conducted in 2001, there were an estimated 89 000 elephants with an annual growth rate of 5 percent,” he said. More online at The Southern Times…

URL: http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/4901

The Tashinga Initiative outlines its project as follows:

Africa is a continent rich in natural resources, yet sustainable development and use of these resources is still to be fully realised.

In Zimbabwe, despite a severely troubled economy, protected areas still extend to 13% of the country’s land surface. Along the length of the Zambezi River and its Zimbabwean hinterland, formally protected wildlife and forest areas (Pas) form a mosaic with adjacent Communal Areas. Many of these areas also support CAMPFIRE-initiated wildlife programmes and projects. The present socio-economic crisis however, has presented numerous challenges to maintaining conservation integrity and the continuity of community wildlife protection efforts.

The Project

In full collaboration with the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (PWMA), this Wildlife Protection Project seeks to address the problem of unsustainable resource use, illegal activity and the lack of operational capacity within PWMA. This will be achieved through a set of targeted outputs for The Tashinga Initiative’s selectedProtection Area Clusters (PACs) in the Zambezi Valley.

The Tashinga Initiative will operate through its USA Foundation, The Tashinga Initiative Foundation Inc., its partner UK Registered Charity, Conservation Zambezi and its local The Tashinga Initiative Trust to implement the project, which is designed to provide support to PWMA in the management and protection of its wildlife areas along and adjacent to the Zambezi River. Funding will be sought through business and philanthropic organizations and individuals, taking a business and private-public partnership approach to achieving its objectives.

Geographical Coverage

The Project intends to target all PACs in the Zambezi Valley, a total area covering more than 17,000 sq miles of wild land. Four discrete Protection Area Clusters have been identified, which encompass the targeted PA system of National Parks, Safari Areas and Forest Areas (see map), namely: Victoria Falls, Chizarira, Matusadona, Mana Pools

Social Return on Investments

Given the needed inputs (human and financial resources), the project intends to deliver 5 outputs, each of which have an anticipated outcome. The sum or aggregation of the outcomes meets the purpose of the project. Each outcome yields an anticipated impact after the project has ended. The sum of the impacts meets the development objective, or long-term goal of the project.

Thus the social return on the project investment is measured in terms of the deliverables reflected by the anticipated project outcomes and impacts.

These are the intended long-term environmental, social and economic benefits following the project.

The word “Tashinga”, loosely translated means “we have been on a journey of endeavour, and despite the difficulties, we have won through”. More on the Tashinga Initiative website here.

The government has adopted a new, controversial, land ‘reform’ policy aimed at ‘resettling’ the wildlife sector, as the countrywide rush to grab any remaining commercially viable land continues.

The programme has been adopted under the position of conservation and ‘sustainable use of wildlife’. The policy document, which was recently adopted by Cabinet, will see the roll out of three models of wildlife land ‘reform’ programmes. More online at SW Radio Africa…

Harare — A Zambian poacher was shot and killed while three others were arrested after a gun battle with National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers at Charara National Park near Sanyati Gorge on Monday evening.

Parks also recovered a motorised boat, an AK47 rifle, 300 rounds of ammunition and 365 kilogrammes of elephant meat from the poachers. More online at allAfrica.com…

INDIANAPOLIS — Lisa Hywood is one of 29 animal conservationists nominated to receive the Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation. Hywood, founder of the Tikki Hywood Trust, has been nominated for her tireless work to preserve Zimbabwe’s wildlife – including assisting with the movement of nearly 700 elephants out of danger zones during the 1992-93 drought, where they would have perished from dire conditions. More online at zimguardian.com…

KAROI – A Karoi magistrate will today hear a bail application by a prison officer facing charges of unlawful possession of ammunition and violating the Wildlife Act after he allegedly supplied bullets to a poacher in Kazangarare, Hurungwe district.

Tobias Chitswanda (27) was arrested last week and initially appeared before magistrate Elisha Singano last Friday who remanded him in custody to Monday. More online at ZimOnline…

The Beitbridge Rural District Council has handed over about US$6 000 to newly resettled farmers at Tshivhombwe in the Nottingham area, about 40km west of the border town, for community projects. The money is part of the Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources for 2008. More online at the Sunday News…

Harare — Five Harare men who were allegedly found in possession of 30,8 kilogrammes of ivory worth more than $4 500 yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court on charges of contravening provisions of the Parks and Wildlife Act.

One of the men, Tapiwa Mupindu (29), pleaded guilty to the charges when he appeared before magistrate Ms Tendai Rusinahama, who remanded him out of custody on US$50 bail to tomorrow for sentence. More online at AllAfrica.com…