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Destruction of Chiredzi River Conservancy continues
Saskia Kuiper
March 27, 2012

Despite numerous disturbing reports and photo's the destruction of the Chiredzi River Conservancy goes on unabated. Government had begun, earlier this year, to take legal action on the unlawful settlement of conservancy areas within Zimbabwe. However, National Parks themselves seem to be countering this positive intervention.

On the 13th of February, a portfolio committee meeting was held where oral evidence from the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement was given on people being resettled within conservancies. Following this, on the 14th of February, there was a meeting held by the Secretary for Lands and Rural Resettlement discussing current land policies. Conservancies such as the Ciredzi River Conservancy (CRC) have been decimated by illegal invasions and are desperate for change.

Despite this encouraging action, three more elephants were allegedly shot and killed by National Parks rangers within the CRC boundary. The ivory was removed from the two young females and young male and the meat was shared amongst the settlers. According to Johnny Rodrigues, Chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), Vitalis Chadenga, Director-General of National Parks, is said to have 40 odd tons of ivory he hopes to sell to raise money to protect the elephant.

It is now alleged that the settlers are putting together a petition to present to parliament requesting that all elephants be shot because they are destroying their crops. This in itself is totally unfounded, as crops cannot be grown successfully in this very arid area.

The settlers began invading Oscro Ranch, one of the view remaining areas in the conservancy without settlers.

Theresa Warth, a land owner within CRC is devastated by the continued slaughter and deforestation of the area, "I believe that NP is meant to be an organization that is here to look after and protect wildlife, not just come and shoot without investigations and assessing the damage reported."

The concept of the Chiredzi River Conservancy came about when a group of progressive farmers decided to stop extensive cattle farming and return to wildlife due to the low rainfall in the region. The Conservancy was started in 1987 with farmers making the decision to take down the fencing between individual farms to create a 110 000 hectare area of pristine wildlife and land.

This haven has slowly been destroyed, when the Zimbabwe land invasions began in February 2000, A1 settlers were given land within the conservancy. Conservancy property owners were told the situation was temporary and that the settlers would be moved to a more suitable area however this never happened.

Rodrigues feels that the invasion and more specifically the associated poaching "is a tactic used by certain politicians to try and intimidate the owners to leave the land." Rodrigues says that although invasions may originally have been politically motivated the conservancy wants to steer clear of politics and focus more on stopping the criminal destruction of the conservancy's environment.

The Chiredzi area, situated in region 5, receives less than 450mm annual rainfall. "This land isn't made for agriculture, the rainfalls aren't good enough," says Warth. Because of the extremities of the climate, the settlers have been unable to grow crops successfully and have resorted to other resources within the conservancy. "There was free meat, free fish, free wood and free grass. But instead of looking after what they were given, they have destroyed it," says Warth.

Theresa's husband Gary is devastated by the destruction. "Its environmental suicide to encroach into the streambed, because of low rainfall, to grow vegetable gardens and hope you're going to reap crops in region five where the rain is so sporadic."

Unfortunately, despite the 'poaching' of these vulnerable resources, they are not being fully utilised. "Three quarters of the game snared rots in the snares and is never utilised," says Warth. Also, the trees which are cut down to make room for crop fields are burnt on the spot and aren't sold or stocked away for later.

According to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force statistics 90% of the game in private game farms has been lost to poaching.

At the end of 2011 the Conservancy had 72 wild elephant; this number has severely dropped, with a spate of seven recent killings. Rodrigues feels the ivory poaching is controlled mainly by the Asian market, who he says "have been linked to a lot of (wildlife) atrocities in the country." The Standard recently published an article about four Chinese nationals who were arrested for killing 40 tortoises listed as an endangered species.

Gary Warth clarifies the severity of the situation saying: "What we're seeing now has gone past political and we're now looking at the criminal destruction of the environment. Regardless of who owns the land, black or white, you can't afford to do what's happening at the moment."

Rodrigues has written a letter of complaint to Vitalis Chadenga, Minister Francis Nhema and to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai about the situation. The issue has been brought up in parliament and there is going to be a commission of inquiry by a task team in to what has been happening.

Rodrigues worries about the heritage of future generations. "I hope the truth will be brought out into the open so that we can save the remaining animals."

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