Weapons

Two shotguns and a rifle were stolen from Lions Den on the night of one farm eviction.  The following day the police came and took all the weapons and ammunition from this property.  No ZRP receipt was given.  They also searched the offices.

An AK47 and two pistols  were seen on War Veterans, the night of the evictions from Lions Den.

Staff

On Lions Den the staff were evicted from their homes on 21 June 2003 at 18h30 and made to stand out in the cold (our coldest and wet winter in 30 years)  till 1am.  They were then loaded on vehicles and dumped on the side of a road..  They were eventually found at 3am by the farmer and moved to safety and shelter.

Homesteads

Homesteads were ransacked and striped of fixtures and fittings.  One homestead has not been touched and it is believed that Ruben Nklanga wants this home.

An example of how one of the farms in the conservancy

managed their game prior to eviction.

Year 2000 - size of property 20 000 acres

Buffalo           1200                             Wildebeeste          60

Giraffe                 3                             Zebra                     60

Hippo                   6                             Kudu                     40

Impala               90                              Reedbuck                6

Eland             1500                              Tssessebe                8 - protected

Sable                  90                             Warthogs              30

Hyena                20                             Elephant              150

Lion                   12 - nomadic          Leopard male         4 - territorial

Wilddog              8                              Leopard f/male      8

Baboons          120                                         

Hunting quota for the year submitted to relevant authorities.

They developed 10 waterpoints, 9 seasonal dams and 2 annual dams.

To date there is no water being pumped to the waterpoints.

When the proprietor of the above farm was recently evicted, approximately 20% of game was left.  Loss of game occurred through illegal hunting and poaching.  Now that no water is being supplied this game will have moved.

On a neighbouring property nine buffalo were shot in a two week period.  This is a small portion of the hunting season which lasts for approximately seven months.

Unauthorized Hunting/Safari Operators,

operating in Matetsi Hunting area.

Botswana operator

Company:-  Touch Africa

France Hobart - tel: 71656340

Amongst other animals shot on various hunts, he killed the tame buffalo that was hand reared on Musuma Ranch.

South African operator

Company:-  De Marillac Safaris

Associated to:   Theo DeMarillac

Vehicle registgration number:-  FCJ797N

American agent:-  Cabelas

Zimbabwean operator

Company:-  Inyati Safaris

Enio di Palma - owner

Jacob Mudenda - consultant/associate

This company has been seen hunting on Woodlands Estate 'B'

They are also logging teak in the Fuller Forest.

They sub-let hunts to De Marillac Safaris.

They are based out of Jafuta Camp owned by Forestry Commission.

The animals are skinned at Mubiya Camp (Forestry) so that National Parks will not know where they are being killed.

Inyati Safaris have been caught poaching a kudu and a buffalo in Guzu Safaris area which is  a photographic area. The kudu was shot at a waterhole from a vehicle.

(There is also a dispute ongoing about an elephant bull.)

Quota irregularities
France Hobart was reported as hunting, again, on Masuma Ranch early in August.

He shot one of the young giraffe that was bought from Clem Coetsee four years ago. There are no wild giraffe in eastern Matetsi. 6 giraffe were purchased for photographic purposes only.  This same Professional Hunter has shot the tame buffalo that were hand reared.

Animals shot in this area since the evictions

• On Woodlands Estate 'B' -

2 Lion( one of which was wounded and only shot three days later and National Parks were not  advised.)

• 6 Buffalo, 2 Sable, 2 Giraffe, 2 Kudu, 2 Impala and various other species whose details  have not been received to date.

Other activities in this area

A South African vehicle has been seen on Woodlands Estate.  Vehicle registration number:-  FBT052N.

A fair number of South African Hunting vehicles have been seen in Victoria Falls and the areas they are hunting in are not known at this stage.

The above information has been verified to the best of our ability.  Information is difficult to collate, but we will do our best to answer any queries. 

WE HAVE TO ACT NOW - HOW ELSE DO WE EXPLAIN TO OUR CHILDREN WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ONE OF THE LAST REMAINING WILDLIFE REFUGES ON THE PLANET?

A COUNTRY TURNED FROM BREAD BASKET TO BEGGAR?

From The Mercury (SA), 1 September

Mugabe's man claims top reserve for 'hunting'

By Gustav Thiel

Amid weekend reports that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is building a R60-million retirement mansion, it has emerged that one of his closest allies has claimed the world-renowned Hwange Wildlife Estate to be used for hunting purposes. The estate is home to the "presidential herd" of about 500 elephants, which were given special presidential protection in a decree issued by Mugabe in 1991. Johnny Rodrigues, chairperson of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force, said on Sunday that the governor of Matabeleland, Obert Mpofu, "has just simply taken the Hwange estate". "The land will now be a free-for-all for poachers and for him (Mpofu) to allow hunters to kill the animals," he said. The Hwange Wildlife Estate is state-owned and comprises 14 000ha of prime land. Rodrigues said he "would not be surprised if he (Mpofu) next moves to claim land in the Hwange National Park for his own purposes" because there were no fences separating the estate from the park. Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's biggest game reserve at 14 650km2. Rodrigues added that people like Mpofu "are putting a death sentence on the future heritage of the country and the benefits that wildlife conservation would have had for the people of the country".

It has been estimated that more than $400-million (about R2,9-billion) has been lost in Zimbabwe's southern region because of rampant poaching. Bambo Kadzombe, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council, said: "Three thousand animals have been poached so far on commercial game farms and Zimbabwe's conservancies, mainly at Save Valley, Mahenye, Bubiyana conservancy, Bubye Valley and Chiredzi River conservancy." In 2002, more than 100 poachers had been arrested and Kadzombe said that if the poaching continued species could become extinct. Rodrigues said it was with that in mind that Mpofu should understand the "folly of allowing hunting at Hwange". He said over the past five years more than 300 of the remaining black rhino in Zimbabwe had been killed. A wildlife researcher based in Zimbabwe said the taking of the land by Mpofu could jeopardise the inclusion of Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park in the Limpopo Transfrontier Park, combining three national parks in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

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Final countdown for wild dogs?

Sep 03 2003 07:52:52:840PM

African wild dogs - also known as painted hunting dogs - are facing extinction again - because of poachers.

Bulawayo - They hunt in family groups over great distances, chasing mostly impala, kudu and duiker until the prey tire and can be caught.

They have earned a well-deserved reputation for being efficient, indefatigable hunters, able to disembowel their prey in a matter of minutes, before lions or hyenas get a chance to move in.

Yet, less known about them is the fact that the sick and wounded, together with the young members of the pack, are looked after, fed on regurgitated food and nursed back to health.

Painted hunting dogs - also known as Cape hunting dogs or African wild dogs - so named for their individual and elaborate skin markings, were some of the most maligned of Africa's predators.

What is known about them now is that they are very social animals living in large packs numbering up to 40. There is usually one breeding female in each pack, and she gives birth to a litter of up to 10 pups at a time that the whole pack takes turns in looking after.

The dogs used to be a common part of the African wilderness. But with the advent of the European colonisation, they were branded vermin and mercilessly persecuted, to the extent of being eradicated from national parks. Their numbers were reduced from some 500 000 to 3 000.

Now they are an endangered species.

Between 1956 and 1961 about 2 700 were killed in Zimbabwe alone for a bounty paid by the government to protect livestock. And those were just the recorded deaths.

This kind of slaughter went on throughout the continent where previously the dogs had been sighted even on the snows of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and often wondered into the Sahara Desert.

The Zimbabwe population fell to a low of 150 in the early 1980s. The total for Africa now stands at about 3 000.

The Zimbabwe dog population, spread through three locations: Hwange and Gonarezhou national parks and the Zambezi Valley, was the largest in the world.

Translocation

But that was before poachers moved in.

They have reduced the dogs' population from about 850 to 600. Tanzania has about 800 dogs, Botswana 500 and South Africa 200.

At the forefront of the species' survival in Zimbabwe is zoologist Greg Rasmussen whose Painted Dog Research Project has existed since 1989.

Operating from the south western part of the country, in and around the 14 000ha Hwange National Park, Rasmussen and his team have been quite successful in allaying ranchers' concerns about the dogs and also bringing about a high level of awareness within the population.

Monitoring with the help of radio collars and translocation has brought the dogs into areas where they had not been seen in decades.

The project has three main focus areas: identifying through research the problems facing painted hunting dogs in Zimbabwe, disseminating information regarding the problems facing this species and actively reducing known causes of mortality and preventing those that are looming.

A considerable percentage of fatalities are caused by motor vehicles as the dogs - moving in packs - frequently fall victim to road accidents, especially when they move in and out of game reserves.

Glow-in-the dark collar

Thus, apart from erecting road signs warning motorists of the dogs' crossing points along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway, Rasmussen has developed a special collar for the dogs with reflective strips and a stainless steel plate. It makes it easier for motorists to see them in the dark, and also protects the dogs' windpipe should they get caught in snares.

The results of extensive tests on improved survival of dogs wearing the collars have shown that the protectively collared dogs had significantly higher survival chances than the rest.

However, given that each pack needs about 750 square kilometres in order to thrive, the dogs' future is far from secured since this exceeds what most game reserves can provide.

Some environmentalists say the only long-term solution to the problem is the creation of trans-frontier parks that will give wild dogs enough room to roam. Not only would this minimise habitat loss to humans, it would also prevent inbreeding, a phenomenon that bodes ill for the survival of the species.

The proposed Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park, a wildlife reserve spanning South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been thrown in doubt due to the reported occupation of Gonarezhou game reserve by land-hungry Zimbabwean peasants.

White farmers

For Rasmussen's study packs, however, the problem has been less academic.

Poaching, fuelled by Zimbabwe's chaotic land-reform programme, has led to the demise of three out of five study packs, or over 30 dogs, in the last 18 months.

Since February 2000, thousands of Zimbabwe's white farmers have been pushed off their land as the government sought to redress colonial land imbalances in an unplanned populist programme driven more by the ruling party's fear of losing power than a desire for genuine reform.

In many instances, government-supported war veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle have moved in, sharing the land among themselves.

Other farms have been partitioned for new black farmers many of whom are content being absentee landlords or are still trying to find their feet.

We need an indication of who should live here and who should not, Rasmussen said of the Gwaai Conservancy, part of his study area consisting of several ranches within which game could roam, but now without careful policing.

A lot of people have moved in merely to collect wildlife.

Poaching

Apparently, the wild dogs are not the only wild animals falling victims to poaching.

The Zimbabwe Wildlife Producers Association estimates that half the country's wildlife has been killed in the last two years, when the country's land programme gained steam.

Rasmussen notes that 16 members of his project's anti-poaching unit are removing 1 000 snares a month and fear that in six months they will have no jobs since the game might have been wiped out.

Now everyone has left the ranches, the poachers are having a free lunch, he says.

Most of the poaching is for selling meat and nothing else. There is absolutely no control.

He said Zimbabwe's reputation of having the best wild dog programme has suffered a major setback.

The worst poachers are South African hunters whose hellish reputation is well-known, Rasmussen said.

The South Africans destroyed their own wildlife and had to restock with animals bought in Zimbabwe. Now there is this window of opportunity in Zimbabwe.

Yet, to stem the tide, Ben Kaschula of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents mainly white landowners, said the rule of law has to return to the farms.

If poaching were to cease, the game would recover given time. For the endangered painted wild dogs, there might be no third chance. - Sapa-IPS

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WWF

25, Aug 2003
New commercial poaching pressures Zimbabwe's rhinos


Harare, Zimbabwe - WWF in collaboration with the Zimbabwean Parks and
Wildlife Management Authority and other conservation agencies, is assisting
in emergency responses to increasing rhino poaching pressures.

Since March 2002, at least sixteen black rhinos and several elephants have
been slaughtered in the Matusadona and Hwange National Parks in northern and
western Zimbabwe. The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has responded
through enhanced patrol efforts, despite crippling shortages of manpower,
fuel and equipment. Four poachers have been killed in recent firefights, and
several have been arrested.

WWF-funded operations enabled the relocation of 22 black rhinos from areas
of high snaring risk to safer areas during 2002. Future operations are
likely to be approved by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Other
supporting NGOs, in particular the Marwell Zimbabwe Trust, the Zambezi
Society and the SAVE Foundation of Australia, have helped to deal with the
new crisis of commercial rhino poaching in National Parks.

Over the past three years, at least fifteen black rhinos have died in these
ranching areas as a consequence of indiscriminate snaring, adding to the
ongoing problems of rhino snaring by subsistence poachers in conservancies.
Further problems for Zimbabwe's rhinos arose in June when South African
"sport" hunters were involved in the illegal slaughter of a black rhino in
southern Zimbabwe.

"Prompt action is required by the South African and Zimbabwean authorities
to deal with this recent case and to clamp down on the cross-border hunting
forays by readily identifiable hunting parties," said Dr. Harrison Kojwang,
Regional Representative for WWF in Southern Africa.

WWF's rhino specialist, Raoul du Toit, adds, "Whereas impoverished
Zimbabweans may claim that they are driven to poaching in order to feed
themselves, relatively wealthy sport hunters from South Africa have no such
excuse - their unethical behaviour is driven by financial interests and by
thrill-seeking."

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Zimbabwe's black rhino population
fell from about 2000 to 370, due to commercial poaching perpetrated mainly
by gangs from across the northern border. Effective conservation measures
then rebuilt the population to about 500.

Recently, Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy and land disputes have stimulated
poaching for "bushmeat", and rhinos are being caught in the wire snares.
Unemployment and inflating costs of living are driving more and more
Zimbabweans into informal occupations, including destructive activities such
as uncontrolled gold panning and poaching. The consequent harvesting of
wildlife and other natural resources is proving difficult for state
conservation agencies to regulate. While it is impossible to quantify the
overall loss of wildlife, estimates of 50 to 80 per cent of wildlife being
lost from some former commercial farms, are widely reported.

"The resolution of internal poaching by rural communities is a long-term
issue requiring the evolution of equitable and durable land reform
arrangements within various sectors of Zimbabwe's complicated wildlife
industry," warned Dr. Kojwang. "WWF stands ready to assist with technical
support in developing these arrangements, which will take a great deal of
effort and a willingness by all stakeholders to negotiate workable and
sensible solutions on an area-by-area basis."

For further information:
WWF - Southern Africa Regional Programme Office
Tel. +263 (0)4 252533
E-mail: wwfsarpo@wwf.org.zw

NOTE TO EDITORS:
Investigations into the shooting of a young female rhino in a conservancy in
southern Zimbabwe in June 2003 led to the identification of South African
participants in this incident. Some South African hunters are taking
advantage of the unsettled situation in Zimbabwe's rural areas to run
illegal safari hunting operations. Members of this network pay small "trophy
fees" to the occupiers of wildlife properties. They then shoot whatever
animals they can (including elephants) for meat, hides and trophies, which
they market illegally.

.............................................

From: CFU - Matabeleland Branch

PRESS RELEASE - SA HUNTERS ARRESTED IN ZIMBABWE

Bulawayo - July 2003

A party of twelve South African hunters belonging to a Christian organisation were arrested in Zimbabwe on Friday last week for illegal hunting on listed properties in West Nicholson, Matabeleland South.  The eight adult men and four teenagers were stopped at a police roadblock outside Beit Bridge town on their way to the close by South African border.  They had in their possession a quantity of meat allegedly meant for exportation from Zimbabwe, a country that is currently riddled with one of the worst foot and mouth disease outbreaks in its history. 

The teenagers were released, but seven of the eight men spent a night in police holding cells in West Nicholson, and the eighth was kept for two nights while police investigated his connection to the slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants four weeks earlier in the same area.  He was released on Sunday after a lawyer was brought in from South Africa.  Pressure to release the men and drop charges was laid on the investigating police officers by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abednigo Ncube, a politician from Gwanda, and himself a beneficiary of a farm in the district.  The South African High Commissioner in Harare was informed of the situation.

Police were alerted to the activities of the hunters on Chipizi Farm by a neighbouring farmer who, after hearing shots from a heavy-calibre weapon in the area, found the carcass of a freshly killed eland with only its hind legs removed.  Subsequent police investigations revealed that the South Africans had been hunting on Chipizi Farm, whose owner has been evicted.  The hunt took place with authority from the local Rural District Council, under the auspices of the resident settlers and so-called professional hunter, Ronnie Sparrow. 

Officials from the Hunting Licence Section of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in Harare confirmed that Mr Sparrow is not licensed with them as a professional hunter in this country.  Nor is he a member of the Zimbabwe Association of Tour and Safari Operators (ZATSO), an organisation to which most Zimbabwean professional hunters belong. 

Investigating officers in West Nicholson said that South African professional hunter Dwayne van Zyl was authorised by Mr Sparrow (as the "licensed hunter" in charge) to conduct the hunt on his behalf, against National Parks regulations.  Mr van Zyl is wanted for questioning by the Zimbabwean police regarding the slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants in the Bubiyana Conservancy last month, as he is thought to have been in the area at the time of the killings.

Chipizi Farm, like its neighbour, is listed for compulsory acquisition as part of Zimbabwe's controversial and notorious Land Acquisition exercise.  The Zimbabwean government has taken over hundreds of farms illegally by fast-tracking the process, evicting bona fide owners and ordering thousands of communal people to settle on properties listed for acquisition without due regard to the law. 

The Land Acquisition Act provides that owners may object to the acquisition of their properties in the Administrative Court, and the court must confirm the acquisition of the property before it is handed over for resettlement.  Until such confirmation is made, the appropriate authority over the wildlife rests with the title deed holder of the land on which the animals reside. 

However, throughout the country settlers and local District Councils have claimed the wildlife resources on listed properties for themselves, and are selling it off to the first unscrupulous buyer that comes along.  Numerous South African hunters have been fingered in the past few months for taking advantage of the confusion over land and wildlife ownership and contributing to the uncontrolled depletion of the wildlife resources on listed properties in Zimbabwe.

Some of the carcasses of the animals shot on Chipizi Farm - an eland, two kudu, a wildebeest and fourteen impala - were taken to a butchery in the nearby town of West Nicholson for processing.  The butcher, who wishes to remain anonymous, says the hunters provided their own biltong spices, and took away over 400kg of wet biltong and raw meat in two plastic crates and ten large waste-disposal bags. 

Police in Beit Bridge recovered two crates of meat, but the bags were missing when the men were arrested.  It is not known what actually happened to the remainder of the meat that was taken from the butchery, but it is suspected that it was taken to South Africa by Mr van Zyl who left before the weekend.  South African authorities are investigating.

In a radio interview about the incident, one of the South African hunters, Mr Brummer, claimed that most of the meat from the trophy hunt was given to farm workers "and the farm owner", while the balance was to be used in exchange for curios before leaving for the border.  Asked why it was processed into biltong first, he replied that they had not realised that the meat had to be brittle-dry before it could be imported into South Africa.  Signs on both sides of the South African border clearly indicate that the South African Veterinary Services have put a moratorium on the importation of animal products from Zimbabwe because of the severity and extent of the FMD outbreak in that country.   

 Besides antelope, the South Africans also killed a hippo and a crocodile in the Chipizi dam but did not "have time" to retrieve them. War Veterans on the farm, who are believed to have been paid R7 500 for the hunt (well below National Park values), have offered Z$1 million to anyone who will retrieve the carcass of the hippo from the dam for them. 

Zimbabwe is recognised worldwide as having one of the most professional and highly-regulated hunting industries in the world, and property owners and safari operators must complete a battery of National Parks approved hunting quotas, pre-hunt and post-hunt forms before hunts can be conducted for gain and trophies exported from the country. A CITES permit is required to hunt crocodile in Zimbabwe.  

Proof of payment in foreign exchange is also required, and moneys paid to operators must be deposited in a Zimbabwean bank, in forex, within 14 days of the cessation of the hunt.  Foreign client hunts may only be conducted in the presence of a Zimbabwean-licensed professional hunter who is responsible for ensuring that all regulations are complied with and that animals are killed in an ethical and humane manner.  Furthermore, 2% levies on daily rates are payable to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority in forex. 

It has been ascertained that the South African group complied with none of the relevant statutory instruments though they claim that their permits were in order.  Police are still investigating.