Zimbabwean officials accused of exaggerating elephant numbers

1.00pm - By BASILDON PETA


A cabal of senior Zimbabwean officials who have been looting the country of its dwindling elephant population, was behind a plan to misrepresent the number of elephants in order to benefit their lucrative trade in Ivory, conservationists said yesterday.

According to Johnny Rodrigues of the Zimbabwean Conservation Taskforce the population of elephants has fallen to 60,000 at the most, yet the government has put the population at more than 100,000.

Mr Rodrigues said various corrupt government officials had hatched the plan to inflate the number of elephants in Zimbabwe in order to dupe the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) into allowing Harare to continue trading in ivory.

It is believed some senior government officials have stockpiled large amounts of ivory from their indiscriminate shootings of animals in seized private game parks and conservation areas and in national parks, several of which are now controlled by top politicians after being stripped from white ownership.

"It is all about greed and the ongoing looting of natural resources here," Mr Rodrigues said.

Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema said there were more than enough elephants in Zimbabwe and accused Mr Rodrigues of hatching a conspiracy theory.

"I know that he (Rodrigues) has teamed up with some people from outside this country to campaign for elephants to be classified in Appendix 1," Mr Nhema said.

"But we will fight against that because what use will be the elephants to us if they don't bring money to help the communities? We have more than enough elephants."

However he did appear to concede that the government's estimate of the elephant population done by the state-run Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management was problematic, saying it was difficult to conduct a conclusive survey of elephants in Zimbabwe because the animals often crossed into neighbouring Botswana and Zambia.

Because of that problem, the figures being given by both the government and the independent conservationists could all be wrong, he said.

But he did not explain how he had thus come to the conclusion that Zimbabwe had "more than enough elephants" which it could continue selling.

Besides Zimbabwe, three other countries, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are at the moment permitted by CITES to engage in limited and controlled trade in ivory and other elephant products.

Conservationists want Zimbabwe to lose the privilege because of the indiscriminate shooting of elephants on the game parks that have been seized by Mugabe's cronies.

Mr Rodrigues organisation is investigating how 40 elephants' legs ended up being seen at a property owned by a top government official. This was after the elephants had been killed and stripped of their ivory and hides.

Mr Rodrigues said he doubted the elephants had been killed legally through a properly issued hunting quota. He said he could not identify the official involved as that would prejudice his organisation's investigations.

However another senior government official, Mr Mugabe's chief spokesman, Jonathan Moyo, the information minister, who now controls a game lodge and a private game park in Hwange, south western Zimbabwe which was confiscated form its previous owner, has been accused of turning a blind eye to widespread poaching on his property.

Another of Mr Mugabe's ministers, Obert Mpofu, the Governor of Matabeleland North, has also been linked to poaching of game in and near the Hwange National Park and on a private conservancy he was recently allocated.

Because of the indiscriminate shooting of animals, Rodrigues and his group want CITES to see beyond the "inflated figures" and help put an end to the systematic destruction of wildlife in Zimbabwe.

"The (government) figures are wrong. This kind of exaggeration is meant to hoodwink CITES into allowing Zimbabwe to cull elephants," he said.

"Zimbabwe should not be allowed to trade in ivory and other elephant products because we don't have enough of the animals. It is corrupt government officials who want to benefit from illegal trade."

The Zimbabwe government's decision to resettle landless peasants in conservancies had worsened the poaching of animals with many killing animals in the conservancies for food.

Mr Nhema vowed that Mugabe's government would fight for the right to keep Zmbabwe's elephant on Appendix Two at the CITES meeting in the Thai capital, Bangkok, next month, allowing controlled trade in ivory and other products.

But Mr Rodrigues is adamant that Zimbabwe's elephants should be put under Appendix One, barring any form of trade in the animals.

Mr Rodrigues said CITES should insist on a comprehensive survey of Zimbabwe's elephant population via satellite before allowing Zimbabwe to continue with its ivory trade, however limited.

"The fact is that Zimbabwe's elephant population has been drastically reduced by all the illegal hunting and killing of animals here and this should be obvious to anyone," he said.

"If they (the government) are confident of their estimate, why are they refusing to submit to a proper scientific count by wildlife experts."

- INDEPENDENT