ZimConservation

THE Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management Francis Nhema has called on the private sector and environmentalists to support their governments in Copenhagen to see to it that policies that benefit the region to militate against impacts of climate change are implemented.

Addressing delegates attending the Southern Africa Regional Community Based Natural Resources Management Forum (CBNRM) in Victoria Falls yesterday, Minister Nhema said:

“In a few days time the whole world is converging in Copenhagen in Denmark for the climate change summit. Let us all go there so that we raise our concerns to the forum so that policies which benefit us are formulated. If we do not go and support, the developed countries will just pass laws that benefit themselves.

“For long we have been quiet and now it is about time we are heard because if we do not we will continue receiving the negative impacts of climate change.” More online at the Chronicle…

Zimbabwe’s bid to dispose off its 26 tonnes of ivory until 2028 might fail following indications by Kenya that it will propose to extent the existing embargo on the trade of ivory in the Southern African nation at the next Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Doha, Qatar in March 2010. More online at RadioVOP…

Eleven-year-old pupils from 10 schools in the city yesterday were presented with certificates at the National Gallery in Bulawayo after they excelled in the environmental conservation campaign competitions in their respective schools. More online at the Chronicle…

OUR carbon footprints are rapidly defacing the planet. Proof lies in the fact that Earth is overheating both ends, north and south. Sea levels are rising and alarmists are wondering if this is exactly what happened all those years ago when Noah built his ark?

Few in parts of Britain recall the month of November being as stormy and as saturated as this year, and as world governments argue as to who is responsible for climate changes, polar bears struggle in a melting Arctic. Bees are dying, marine life, bats and birds are disappearing off the radar for no apparent reason and the majestic condor is seldom seen cruising the oceans any more.

It was therefore a relief to discover that despite global warming and environmental issues dominating the world stage, there are schools throughout Zimbabwe already engaging their students in these fields. More online at The Zimbabwe Guardian…

From: Christopher Scott – Aware Trust

AWARE Trust is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to pro-actively further the conservation and welfare of wildlife and wildlife habitats, with particular reference to conservation veterinary medicine, and to raise AWAREness of veterinary and ecological threats to wildlife species and habitats.

AWARE ran a “Spay Campaign” in May with the aim of providing veterinary assistance to those with no access to it. The campaign, conducted in the Maramani Communal Area near Beit Bridge, was a great success, helping more than two hundred animals in one of the poorest parts of the country. AWARE is about to embark on another campaign – please help us help the animals of our country! You can make a difference!

For more information, please contact Christopher Scott on 0912440052 or email chris@awaretrust.org.

Three black rhinos at Imire Safari Park have been dehorned in order to prevent them from being killed by poachers. Imire has four black and two white rhino, and all but one baby have now been dehorned. An estimated 200 rhino have been killed by poachers in the last three years. More online at http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk.

Our heartfelt appreciation to those of you who responded to our appeal for funds to buy M99, the tranquilizer necessary to remove snares from the wildlife. A very special thanks to the RSPCA in London who very kindly paid for the whole consignment and to Meryl Harrison who appealed to them on our behalf.

We also received a substantial donation from the Born Free Foundation (UK) and thanks to them as well as the donors listed below, we will now be able to place an order for another consignment of M99. We can never have too much M99 because the poaching and snaring situation in Zimbabwe is more critical now than ever before. More online at The Zimbabwean…

The Beitbridge Rural District Council is working on measures to curb rampant poaching of wildlife and natural resources in the district, an official has said.

In an interview recently, chairperson of the natural resources management committee Mr Joseph Muleya, said they had mobilised a number of resources and would soon descend on the poachers as they were losing a lot of revenue to poachers across the district. More online at The Herald…

Our front page story this week about the unprecedented savage destruction of our wildlife resources is yet another symptom of the breakdown of law and order in our country.

This wanton destruction has not been done by hungry villagers, desperate for a meal, but by well-heeled Zanu (PF) heavies, terrorised police and parks officials and despicable professional hunters.
We commend the few national parks officials and dedicated conservationists who, against incredible odds, are battling to save something of our precious wildlife heritage. It is truly a David and Goliath battle. The poachers have massive firepower on their side, as well as political backing from within the corrupt Zanu (PF) hierarchy. More online at The Zimbabwean…

SADLY, because it is no longer televised, few realise that beyond the limits of the Ministry of Education field, the National Wildlife and Environmental Annual Schools Quiz for Primary Schools is still a nation-wide event. More online at The Zimbabwe Guardian…

HARARE — An international crime syndicate is behind an escalation in poaching in Zimbabwe which has slaughtered 65 elephants and 30 rhinos this year, a wildlife official said Monday.

“From January to October this year we have lost 65 elephants through poaching,” Vitalis Chadenga, operations director of the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority told journalists. More online at Google…

The behaviour of elephants in Livingstone is very worrying and ‘Get Wild’ cannot go silent on this issue especially that human lives are at stake. There seems to be a big human-animal conflict in the area as witnessed by recent experiences.

In September this year, Chrispin Matali a resident of Simonga village in Livingstone was trampled to death by an elephant while his son watched helplessly and only managed to report his father’s fate to the village. More online at The Post…

The last year has seen a major increase in the illegal ivory trade, with more involvement from organised crime.

Figures compiled by Traffic, the agency charged with monitoring the trade, show a doubling in the volume of illegal ivory seized from 2008 to 2009. More online at BBC…

Harare — Conservation agriculture has become popular with most communal small-scale farmers as some non-governmental organisations are spearheading the farming method they say is more sustainable than the usual way of farming.

Conservation agriculture is based on minimum soil movement (by tillage), soil surface cover with crop residue and living plants and crop rotations to avoid pests. More online at AllAfrica.com…

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has lost about 200 rhinoceroses — a quarter of its total population — to rampant poaching over the last three years as security and the economy deteriorated, state media reported on Tuesday.

The southern African country has been badly damaged by an economic crisis, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms, including wildlife farms, to resettle landless blacks. More online at Reuters…

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A federal jury in Aberdeen, S.D., has found a South Dakota man guilty for smuggling the hide of a leopard into the United States in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), an international treaty that regulates international shipments of listed species, to which the United States and 172 other countries are members. The leopard allegedly was hunted and killed in South Africa illegally. Wayne D. Breitag of Aberdeen, S.D., was also found guilty for violations of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife statute. More online at Reuters…

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The rescue of nine cruelly abused elephants from a commercial training facility in Zimbabwe will begin on Monday, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) has announced.

The elephants were confiscated in April 2009 after an inspection by the Zimbabwe National Society for the Protection of Cruelty against Animals (ZNSPCA) found cruel and torturous methods were being used to “tame and train” them for the elephant back safari industry – a popular tourist activity in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in southern Africa. More online at Cloud Computing Journal…