Report #2 May/June 2004
Will Zimbabwe become a wildlife sink for the Great Limpopo Peace Park?
The peace parks ideal has the potential to revolutionize conservation in Africa, but its core ingredients are peace and solidarity between nations. Mugabe and our neighboring leaders stand united, rebuffing international critics but peace and solidarity within Zimbabwe are sorely lacking. So what are the implications for a transfrontier wildlife park?
“I know of no political movement, no philosophy, no ideology, which does not agree with the peace parks concept as we see it going into fruition today. It is a concept that can be embraced by all. In a world beset by conflict and division, peace is one of the cornerstones of the future. Peace parks are building blocks in this process, not only in our region, but potentially in the entire world.” This was Nelson Mandela’s elegant summary of the objectives of the Peace Parks Foundation. As former WWF South Africa president, Anton Rupert, saw the importance of garnering political support for this ambitious international project and he managed to persuade a powerful set of patrons to come on board, namely: President Mogae (Botswana), His Majesty King Letsie lll (Lesotho), President Muluzi (Malawi), President Chissano (Mozambique), President Nujoma (Namibia), His Majesty King Mswati lll (Swaziland), and President Mugabe (Zimbabwe) and Dr Nelson Mandela (South Africa; Patron Emeritus). With this kind of help, how could Peace Parks fail?
So how is GLPP shaping up?
Mozambique is currently coordinating the development of the park and it is clearing landmines, building up wildlife stocks, tearing down 150km of military fences along its South African border, increasing anti-poaching patrols and developing tourist infrastructure. It is roaring ahead with the help of US$ 5 million from the Global Environment Facility and similar donations from the EU and German Development Bank. The South African government has allocated about US$6 million to developing infrastructure in the park and it is coming up with management plans, border controls and anti-poaching units that will also prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into the park its budget including government. The Zimbabwean government has allocated the equivalent of US $ 370 000 to various electrification and maintenance projects in the park but government officials acknowledge that it is difficult to raise enough money to fully embrace the plan, largely because foreign donors are wary of Zimbabwe right now.
As Zimbabwe prepares to take on the role of project coordinator later this year the Zimbabwean side of the peace park remains in a shambles. So far, Zimbabwean officials have failed to appoint a parks coordinator and the settlers that invaded the northern part of Gonare-zhou in 2001 remain comfortably established, despite assurances from the minister for the environment that they would be resettled elsewhere. In addition to Gonare-zhou National Park, private conservancies were supposed to play a key role in the peace park, however, settlers have invaded many private conservancies and game ranches, assaulted conservancy staff, cut game fences and used the wire for snares. They have also damaged wildlife habitats by lighting fires, clearing trees and planting crops on marginal drought-prone land. There are even reports that some South African hunters are taking advantage of the confusion by hunting on these conservancies and paying below market-rate trophy fees to the illegal settlers!
New challenges
These particular problems have been developing over the last few years, but three recent developments in Zimbabwe threaten to further undermine conservation and wildlife sectors.
The first is an announcement by John Nkomo in the state-owned newspaper that the government plans to nationalize all land in Zimbabwe and sell 99-year leases to farmers, but leases on conservancies would be limited to 25 years. This report has subsequently been refuted, but Zimbabweans have learned to keep a close eye on the rhetoric of an increasingly unpredictable government. Zambia is only now beginning to recover from a similar nationalization scheme carried out by its own government in the 1960′s.
The second significant development is that the Army and National Parks employees have been reported poaching wildlife in the Kariba/ Chirara area. Interestingly, the minister for environment simply refuted the poaching accusations, apparently without investigating the matter, even though many witnesses have reported that carcasses have been airlifted out of the reserve using Army helicopters! There is a real concern that this might encourage Parks and Army personnel stationed in other areas to abuse their positions for short-term economic gain.
The third development was the arbitrary arrest of a party of 7 South African tourists camping at Chirundu. After arresting them and refusing to state what the charges were, the group was taken to a police station in Karoi (a two-hour drive away from their camp) where they were detained and interrogated for nearly two days. While this ordeal was minor, it is bad publicity for a volatile tourism market.
Peace Park planners are now in a difficult political position. It is important to curry favour with ZANU PF in order to keep the project afloat as it was originally conceived and they should be commended for keeping Zimbabwe on board and for continuing dialogue with a regime where others might have given up. However, the Zimbabwean government needs to take some decisive action to create peace, stability and to enforce the rule of law. If it doesn’t, the South African and Mozambican wildlife might be better off if Zimbabwe doesn’t get around to creating the 50km corridor linking Gonare-zhou to the rest of the park.
