By Bisola Adeyemo
A German conservationists has donated $1 million annually to Zimbabwe wildlife to help sustain its operations and fight poach.
Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), disclosed this with AFP by email, adding that the money which will last for good fifteen years, will also help pay for ranger patrols, equipment maintenance, and other everyday needs.
The Gonarezhou National Park, which is the second-largest reserve in Zimbabwe contains at least 11,000 elephants, as well as black rhinos, whose numbers are kept secret for security reasons.
According to the email message, the money will come from the Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF), a brand-new international initiative that provides funds to help wildlife havens in poor countries.
“The idea of the Legacy Landscapes Fund is to provide a reliable funding for basic operations in a protected area,” said the FZS’s head of communications, Dagmar Andres-Bruemmer.
“In some parks in Africa, even basic work such as ranger patrols could not be done due to budget cuts. So poaching picked up significantly.
“Protected and wild areas remain the mainstay of biodiversity conservation and our best tool at mitigating climate change across the globe,” said Hugo Van der Westhuizen, director of Gonarezhou Conservation Trust.
“Managing these areas effectively requires long-term commitment in funding.”