Harare -  An environmental catastrophe is looming in most wildlife protected areas in
Matabeleland North due to an upsurge in poaching activities by Zanu PF
militias camped at bases throughout the province, it has been learnt.
 
This has prompted warnings by a prominent conservationist that cases of
poaching, which skyrocketed following the chaotic land reform programme, will
result in most wildlife species becoming extinct if left unchecked.
 
A number of Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (NPWMA)
officials speaking on condition of anonymity raised alarm last week saying
the illegal hunting of game had gone out of hand.
 
They said elephants and buffaloes at conservancies, national parks and
Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources Programme
(CAMPFIRE) areas were the most affected.
 
"Each ward has a base of not less than 10 people who have been camped there
since sometime in April and these people have been feeding on game meat,"
said a senior ZNPWMA official. "In areas like Lupane, at least an elephant
and a buffalo are killed every week and here we are not talking about the
small game."
 
War veterans and Zanu PF youths set up bases soon after President Robert
Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential election to Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
 
The ruling party militias have been accused of extorting food from hungry
villagers. In some areas young girls were reportedly recruited to cook food
extorted from companies at the bases.
 
There are reports that the bases have not been dismantled even after
President Mugabe won the 27 June one-man presidential election run-off as
Tsvangirai pulled out citing mounting violence against his supporters.
 
"There is a serious danger of over-hunting, especially in the Gwayi
Conservancy, where new farmers are being forced to regularly send game meat
to the bases," said another source.
 
"Although the hunting season is on, the quantities of meat being demanded by
these people are just too much to be sustained by the low number of hunting
quotas that have been issued this season."
 
Some new farmers in the Gwayi Conservancy complained that they were no longer
able to supply their workers game meat, which they usually get from trophy
hunters during the hunting season.
 
"If you fail to comply with their demands you become an enemy of the ruling
party," complained a farmer who requested anonymity. "This is forcing some of
our colleagues to over-hunt and it is not good for the environment, something
needs to be done to stop this."
Johnny Rodrigues, a prominent environmentalist and chairman of the Zimbabwe
Conservation Taskforce said recent research showed that the problem was
country-wide, with elephants being the most hunted.
 
"If it goes on like this within a year Zimbabwe will run out of wildlife," he
said. "Poaching levels have actually doubled in the last few months and we
have been to the ground to see for ourselves the extent of these problems."
 
NPWMA spokesman, Edward Mbewe, could not be reached for comment on the latest
developments.

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