Report #1 April 2004
Wildlife on a roller-coaster
In Zimbabwe’s brief history its wildlife has weathered many assaults, but by the mid 1990′s Zimbabwe’s conservation programme was one of the best in Africa. In the year 2000, however, the government embarked on a land confiscation scheme that derailed the economy and now the future of Zimbabwe’s wildlife is as uncertain as the future of its people..
Caring for wildlife and its habitats has not always been a mainstream philosophy in Zimbabwe. The early settlers struggled with the wildlife, complaining to the British administration that it was simply impossible to farm in a zoo! Nonetheless, the good climate and soils allowed some early colonial farmers to flourish and eventually the human population and their cattle cast their eyes on hotter low-lying regions. These areas were virtually impossible to settle because of tsetse flies that carry a parasite causing sleeping sickness. In 1919 a tsetse control programme was launched. The early philosophy was to control them by destroying the large game that are a food source for the flies and act as reservoirs of the pathogen they transmit. Forests were also cleared and waterholes were bulldozed in tsetse country and a DDT-spraying programme followed. DDT is a nasty pesticide with many well-known detrimental effects, especially on predatory birds whose eggshells become dangerously thinned as a result of the pesticide bioaccumulating in their bodies.
In the early 1900′s there was a small and active conservation movement but wildlife was generally regarded as vermin. At this time, the government ran a predator control program, placing a bounty on painted hunting dogs and predatory cats that even extended into National Parks! In 1959 opinion began to change largely in response to Operation Noah. This was a programme to rescue animals from the rising lake waters of the newly built Kariba dam. The media portrayed the rescuers of the dangerous and charismatic animals as heroes, helping to sway the negative public opinion of wildlife at the time.
As wildlife research continued, laws were passed granting ownership of wildlife to the landowners (before this all wildlife was state property). Excellent wildlife research facilities became established throughout the country and a large number of natural history societies were formed. Eventually an excellent network of infrastructure and a significant knowledge base was compiled. This, together with Zimbabwe’s rich wildlife heritage formed the foundations of the success story of the 1990′s.
Success
By 1995, Zimbabwe was widely acknowledged as one of the showpieces of the African conservation movement. Economic studies had shown that game farming was more profitable and environmentally-friendly than ranching in the drier parts of the country and by 1995 about 15% of the 4 500 commercial farmers in Zimbabwe had turned to the recreational hunting and tourism sector—much to the benefit of the wildlife and their habitat.
By this time, CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas’ Management Programme For Indigenous Resources) was well off the ground. It had over 70 000 participating households and was being replicated under different names in many other parts of the world. The concept promoted the sustainable harvesting of wildlife by poor subsistence farmers living on state-owned land. This was a significant development in areas where elephants are dangerous crop raiders while other animals prey on livestock and occasionally people. These same communities used to think of wildlife as free meals or as dangerous pests, but now regard wildlife as an economic asset and a vehicle for development.
The increase in popularity of the private game-ranching sector and CAMPFIRE meant that by 1995 nearly 30% of Zimbabwe’s land was used in some shape or form for wildlife conservation (only 13% of this belonged to National Parks). There were many problems that come with the everyday realities of management, politics and economics in a fledgling African democracy, but the conservationists, NGO’s and government departments were generally optimistic and enthusiastic about the future.
Land confiscation
Since the onset of the government sponsored accelerated land reform program beginning in the year 2000, tourism declined dramatically. At its peak, tourism brought in 12.5% of the country’s GDP and employed 4.5% of the labor force. Present day statistics vary so widely that realistic estimates are difficult to guess, but some private industry officials have estimated declines in revenue from 700 million US dollars in 1999 to 71 million in 2003.
At the beginning of 2004, it was estimated that just 400-500 white commercial farmers remained on their farms compared to 4000 in the year 2000. It is not clear what proportion of the designated farms were game conservancies. One conservation group, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task force, estimates that about 80% of large game has been poached on some private conservancies, but it is not clear how widely applicable these figures are, or how they were obtained. Apparently, CAMPFIRE schemes and National Parks areas have been relatively unaffected in the turmoil but they both depend on tourism so if the estimated tourist figures are even partly true they must be suffering economically.
The last four years have been extremely turbulent times in Zimbabwe, and much attention has focused on food shortages, elections, the rule of law and civil unrest while wildlife issues have remained on the sidelines. In order to stem the loss of Zimbabwe’s rich wildlife heritage we need to embark on the gargantuan task of assessing what effects the recent land invasions have had on private game farms, national parks and communal areas throughout the country and to come up with some pragmatic solutions to the problems encountered.
