New Farmers Decimate Lion Population
Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
March 7, 2004
Loughty Dube
Bulawayo
As the plunder of wildlife in safari and conservancy areas in Matabeleland North continues unabated, it has emerged that the lion population in the areas has been depleted as a result of wanton hunting by new farmers.
The revelations come in the wake of similar allegations of the plunder of the Presidential Elephant Herd by the new farmers allocated safari land under the fast track land reforms in areas bordering Hwange National Park.
As a result of the indiscriminate slaughter of the beast, the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has reduced the 2004 hunting quota for lions in the Matetsi, Zambezi and Gwayi conservancies.
An internal report, entitled '2004 hunting season private land quotas for approval: Matabeleland North province', co-signed by the authority's chief ecologist, the director of operations, the board chairman and approved by Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema, confirmed the reduction in the hunting quota of lions for the 2004 season.
"Lion population in particular has been observed to be declining as evidenced by reduced hunter success rates and observed low numbers," reads the report.
"It is therefore recommended that the lion quota for the Matetsi and Gwayi be drastically reduced this season, furthermore the hunting off-take from safari areas be reduced significantly per operator during the next hunting season."
This is not the first time that Parks and Wildlife Management has taken action to curb the abuse of hunting rights in the same area.
Last year in October the Department of Parks banned all hunting activities in the Gwayi Valley Conservancy after it emerged that some operators were using fake hunting quotas while other operators were not following stipulated hunting quotas.
The Gwayi Valley Conservancy borders the Hwange National Park and safari ranches that have been allocated to new farmers under the government's A2 model.
The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) chairman, John Rodrigues, however said the reduction in the hunting quota for lions by Parks and Wildlife Management would not have any effect because there were no lions to talk about left.
"There should have been a complete ban on the hunting of lions as the actual number of lions in the country is not known, the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management should first do an audit because the number of lions has dropped so drastically," Rodrigues said.
He said collared lions protected by the World Foundation have also been hunted down while an over-20 animal pride in Kariba has been reduced to a mere three member pride.
"People with concessions are not hunting in a conservative way; they just kill anything on their way, 20 animal-pride in Kariba has been reduced to three beasts and unless the Parks and Wildlife Management put a stop to the hunting of lion altogether we will have no lions to talk about in future," Rodrigues said.
The reduction in the lion hunting quota comes barely four months after the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management banned several safari operators, some of whom include senior Zanu PF politicians, from conducting hunts in the wildlife rich province of Matabeleland North.
