ZimConservation

Crime rings boost ivory smuggling

Bryan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:42:43 +0000

The last year has seen a major increase in the illegal ivory trade, with more involvement from organised crime.

Figures compiled by Traffic, the agency charged with monitoring the trade, show a doubling in the volume of illegal ivory seized from 2008 to 2009. More online at BBC…

Conservation Agric Gains Popularity

Bryan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:08:46 +0000

Harare — Conservation agriculture has become popular with most communal small-scale farmers as some non-governmental organisations are spearheading the farming method they say is more sustainable than the usual way of farming.

Conservation agriculture is based on minimum soil movement (by tillage), soil surface cover with crop residue and living plants and crop rotations to avoid pests. More online at AllAfrica.com…

Quarter of Zimbabwe’s rhinos killed by poachers

Bryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:09:27 +0000

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has lost about 200 rhinoceroses — a quarter of its total population — to rampant poaching over the last three years as security and the economy deteriorated, state media reported on Tuesday.

The southern African country has been badly damaged by an economic crisis, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms, including wildlife farms, to resettle landless blacks. More online at Reuters…

South Dakota Man Found Guilty For Smuggling A Leopard Hide Into U.S.

Bryan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:06:15 +0000

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A federal jury in Aberdeen, S.D., has found a South Dakota man guilty for smuggling the hide of a leopard into the United States in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), an international treaty that regulates international shipments of listed species, to which the United States and 172 other countries are members. The leopard allegedly was hunted and killed in South Africa illegally. Wayne D. Breitag of Aberdeen, S.D., was also found guilty for violations of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife statute. More online at Reuters…

Battered and Bruised – Abused Elephants to Be Rescued in Zimbabwe

Bryan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:05:00 +0000

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The rescue of nine cruelly abused elephants from a commercial training facility in Zimbabwe will begin on Monday, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) has announced.

The elephants were confiscated in April 2009 after an inspection by the Zimbabwe National Society for the Protection of Cruelty against Animals (ZNSPCA) found cruel and torturous methods were being used to “tame and train” them for the elephant back safari industry – a popular tourist activity in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in southern Africa. More online at Cloud Computing Journal…

Zimbabwe shooting dead chauvinistic baboons

Bryan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:05:17 +0000

A local Board in Zimbabwe’s mining town of Hwange has hired a professional hunter to track down and kill baboons for reportedly causing havoc in residential suburbs, the board’s technical committee chairman, Councillor Andrew Mupande, has said.

In an interview with our correspondent in Hwange, south-west Zimbabwe, he said following complaints from residents that baboons were now a menace, as they break into houses to steal food, the board approached the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to deal with the problem. More online at The Zimdiaspora…

Region to fight ivory trade ban

Bryan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:29:54 +0000

Parks public relations officer Edward Mbewe said an African Wildlife Consultative Forum, aimed at pressing for the lifting of the ban, had been set up.

“Culling of elephants is prohibited under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and we formed this forum to fight this ban,” he said.

The forum includes Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia, among others. More online at The Southern Times…

‘Unite in fight against illegal wildlife traffic’

Bryan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:50:28 +0000

Addressing delegates at a law enforcement-training workshop hosted by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Tom Millken, director, Traffic East/Southern Africa (TESA), called on all southern African countries to increase exchange programmes on the curbing of illegal wildlife trafficking in the region.

“Countries in the Southern African Development Community region have similar problems as far as illegal wildlife trafficking is concerned, this therefore signals the need for greater co-operation and increased idea sharing between wildlife law enforcement bodies from all countries in the region,” said Millken. More online at The Southern Times…

Zim jumbo herd growing at 5pc

Bryan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:49:41 +0000

Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director general Morris Mtsambiwa said the elephant herd ‘ now at an estimated 100 000 ‘ was growing especially in protected areas such as Sebakwe, Zambezi Valley and the South East Lowveld.

“When the last national survey was conducted in 2001, there were an estimated 89 000 elephants with an annual growth rate of 5 percent,” he said. More online at The Southern Times…

The Tashinga Wildlife Initiative

Bryan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:55:08 +0000

URL: http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/4901

The Tashinga Initiative outlines its project as follows:

Africa is a continent rich in natural resources, yet sustainable development and use of these resources is still to be fully realised.

In Zimbabwe, despite a severely troubled economy, protected areas still extend to 13% of the country’s land surface. Along the length of the Zambezi River and its Zimbabwean hinterland, formally protected wildlife and forest areas (Pas) form a mosaic with adjacent Communal Areas. Many of these areas also support CAMPFIRE-initiated wildlife programmes and projects. The present socio-economic crisis however, has presented numerous challenges to maintaining conservation integrity and the continuity of community wildlife protection efforts.

The Project

In full collaboration with the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (PWMA), this Wildlife Protection Project seeks to address the problem of unsustainable resource use, illegal activity and the lack of operational capacity within PWMA. This will be achieved through a set of targeted outputs for The Tashinga Initiative’s selectedProtection Area Clusters (PACs) in the Zambezi Valley.

The Tashinga Initiative will operate through its USA Foundation, The Tashinga Initiative Foundation Inc., its partner UK Registered Charity, Conservation Zambezi and its local The Tashinga Initiative Trust to implement the project, which is designed to provide support to PWMA in the management and protection of its wildlife areas along and adjacent to the Zambezi River. Funding will be sought through business and philanthropic organizations and individuals, taking a business and private-public partnership approach to achieving its objectives.

Geographical Coverage

The Project intends to target all PACs in the Zambezi Valley, a total area covering more than 17,000 sq miles of wild land. Four discrete Protection Area Clusters have been identified, which encompass the targeted PA system of National Parks, Safari Areas and Forest Areas (see map), namely: Victoria Falls, Chizarira, Matusadona, Mana Pools

Social Return on Investments

Given the needed inputs (human and financial resources), the project intends to deliver 5 outputs, each of which have an anticipated outcome. The sum or aggregation of the outcomes meets the purpose of the project. Each outcome yields an anticipated impact after the project has ended. The sum of the impacts meets the development objective, or long-term goal of the project.

Thus the social return on the project investment is measured in terms of the deliverables reflected by the anticipated project outcomes and impacts.

These are the intended long-term environmental, social and economic benefits following the project.

The word “Tashinga”, loosely translated means “we have been on a journey of endeavour, and despite the difficulties, we have won through”. More on the Tashinga Initiative website here.