January
30 January - Slump Forecast in Safari Business… Safari operators have predicted a 35% drop in volume of business when the hunting season begins in May due to the cholera outbreak that has so far claimed more than 3 000 lives since August last year. Jacob Mudenda, Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe chairman, told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that he had received numerous inquiries from potential hunting clients who were concerned about the waterborne disease outbreak. From: Zimbabwe Independant
29 Janury - Miners Seek Reprieve… The Zimbabwe Miners Federation is negotiating with the Environmental Management Agency for small-scale miners to get a grace period to pay for environmental impact assessment reports, an official said on Tuesday. From: AllAfrica.com
27 January - Tsonga Project: Assessing Gains of Commercial Farming… When the Kwara State Government invited the displaced Zimbabwean farmers to the state for the Tsonga farming project, many thought it was another white elephant exercise. But with the series of awards garnered by the government on the success of the scheme, it means that it can never be ignored. Tunde Sanni looks at the project, the initial knocks and the plethora of awardsGovernor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State saw the golden opportunity in good time when President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe drove away the white farmers and their tractors from his country during the country’s controversial land redistribution policy. Saraki never failed to grab that opportunity. From: This Day
27 January - Zero-Tillage Scheme Benefits Over 100 Families… More than 100 families in the Dzumbunu area of Mhondoro have benefited from a zero-tillage programme introduced three years ago by a group of farmers who had received training on the technology from River of Life Church in Mt Hampden, Harare. Programme co-ordinator Mr Taurai Muzerengani said they adopted the method of farming after realising that most farmers in the community did not have animals for draught power and found it difficult to secure funding for inputs and other basic services in time. From: AllAfrica.com
24 January - Zimbabwe slaughters elephants for army … Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government has resorted to slaughtering elephants to feed thousands of hungry soldiers, sources told ZimOnline. The state Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has since last week supplied elephant meat to army barracks across the country that have run out of food, our sources who are senior officers in the army, said. From: Saturday Nation
22 January - Posterity to lose out on Zimbabwe’s wildlife heritage… Will the Zimbabwean children of the generations to come be able to know what an elephant looks like or they will have to envisage the grandiose beast on images like we do the prehistoric dinosaur of the Jurassic Park fame? What of eland, kudu, impala, buffalo, giraffe and a host of these wild animals that roam the majestic forests of wild Zimbabwe. From: The Harare Tribune
22 January - Farmer invests in fish farming… A market gardener, Mr Onias Bahadze, of Darras Farm in Gumtree, intends to diversify into commercial fish farming. Speaking to Business Chronicle yesterday, Mr Bahadze said he had already built four fish ponds. From: Chronicle online
22 January - Power of 10: Magic Number for Wild Dog Packs… Packs of African wild dogs run down impalas and other fleet-footed prey for a living. But that lifestyle is energetically precarious: running takes a lot of work, and food must be divvied among pack members. Moreover, small stomachs, an adaptation to running, mean the dogs must sometimes abandon their leftovers. From: Live Science
21 January - Surgeon slammed for killing elephants… An orthopaedic surgeon in the UK has triggered public outrage after it was revealed he went on a hunting expedition to Africa that wiped out a herd of elephants. Harley Street specialist Benjamin Chang paid over $12,000 to take part in a professionally guided elephant hunting trip in Zimbabwe, the Times newspaper reports. From: 6 minutes
18 January - Elephant hunts in Zimbabwe criticized… Animal rights activists say little of the money paid by hunters to kill elephants in national parks in Zimbabwe is being used for conservation efforts. ”Because of the corruption and financial situation I would be surprised if anything at all reached conservation or communities,” said Michael Wamithi, spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. From: Market Watch
18 January - British kill entire elephant herd… British hunters, including a prominent Harley Street surgeon, have been paying the Zimbabwean authorities thousands of pounds each to take part in a mass elephant cull. They are among groups of hunters who have been permitted to track and kill whole herds, including their calves, before taking photographs of themselves with the carcasses. Rumours that Zimbabwe was culling its population of 80,000-100,000 elephants have been circulating for some time, but definitive proof that foreigners have been paying to be involved has emerged only now. From: Times Online
17 January - Parks delegation off to US… The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority will on Monday next week lead a delegation from the hunting industry to the city of Reno in Nevada, the United States, for the annual Safari Club International Convention. From: The Herald (http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=226&cat=1)
15 January - Fish farmers urged to increase productivity… Smallscale fish farmers have been urged to invest in water bodies on their farms to make fish farming a year-round activity. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority public relations manager, Ms Olivia Mufute told Business Chronicle that fish were an economic source of relish that families could rely on as a substitute to beef, which had become expensive. From: Chronicle Online
8 January - ‘Elephants Slaughtered To Feed Hungry Soldiers’… In a move likely to appal conservationists the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) and the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority have reportedly struck a deal that has resulted in the authority slaughtering elephants to feed soldiers at army barracks across the country. From: Zimbabwe Independant
