*Plan violates CITES convention – CSO
By FEMI AKINOLA
Following Namibia’s recent announcement to cull 723 wild animals – including 83 elephants to mitigate the effects of drouhgt and distribute the meat to communities facing food shortages,
Zimbabwe’s government has announced tht it is considering a proposal to do likewise.
Zimbabwe noted that it would cull its elephant population to address food shortages as well as reduce the effects of an El Nino – induced drought in the country.
The nation’s Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Sithembiso Nyoni, at weekend, said Zimbabwe has more elephants than the nation’s forest can accommodate.
Zimbabwe said it has about 100,000 elephants against its carrying capacity of about 45,000 and has not been able to sell some of the jumbos because of the Convention on International Traded in Endangered Species – CITES.
The country is one of the five countries in southern Africa that the World Food Programme said have been hit hard by El-Nino drought, leaving millions of people food insecure.
Much as Namibia’s decision attracted condemnation from conservationists, Zimbabwe’s proposal to cull elephants will paint the country in a bad light, said Farai Magwu of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance.
Magwu said: ” Elephants are protected by international conventions, such as CITES MagwuThey are in a world heritage.
One does not decide to say I want to slaughter them. They are not like goats, which a person can just say I want to slaughter a goat and feed my family. There are rules and procedures.”
He stressed that officials in Harare have long fought to change those rules. ” Zimbabwe has always been pushing for the right to kill elephants. said Magwu.
”We all know when you look at how our natural resources are being plundered right now, like minerals, the whole idea is to sell ivory. It’s not even about the communities there,” said Magwu.
However, Magwu said that ” there is a lot that the government can do to cushion the people from the effects of the drought rather than killing elephants, I think they should stop that move.” .
However, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Sithembiso Nyoni, said that Zimbabwe’s culling of the elephants would fall within the confines of the country’s law. ” If Zimbabwe had a way, we would sell our elephants for ivory. The people who prevent us from selling our ivory are people who have already finished and killed their own animals.
” They don’t have elephnats. And they don’t have the experience of this human wildlife we are facing. Those are the people who influence the decision of CITES,” Nyoni noted.