Hunting had long been a source of ill-gotten revenue for members of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front elite and they were developing new hunting schemes to earn more foreign currency.
This was said by the United States embassy after the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe claimed that the government was indiscriminately issuing hunting licences including in the country’s national parks.
Sally Bown, administrative officer for SOAZ, said that numerous photographic safari operators in Hwange National Park were sending emails reporting commercial elephant hunting incidents within the park.
Bown and Save Valley Conservancy director Clive Stockil believed that this frantic last grab at hunting revenue was one more aspect of ZANU-PF insiders’ efforts to strip assets and fill their pockets before losing power to the Movement for Democratic Change
She said that the same small group of hunters involved in this operation had been consistently involved in unethical and marginally legal hunting.
Bown named some of the professional hunters involved as Guy Whitall, Tim Schultz of African Dream Safaris, Headman Sibanda and Wayne Grant of Nyala Safaris, Evans Makanza, Alan Shearing, Buzz Charlton and James Macullam of Charlton Macullum Safaris, A.J. Van Heerden of Shashe Safaris, Barry Van Heerden of Big Game Safaris, and Lawrence Boha.
According to the US embassy numerous conservationists had suggested that the Van Heerden brothers were involved in suspicious hunting and land deals with the Director of the Central Intelligence Organization, Happyton Bonyongwe.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08HARARE956, QUIET DIPLOMACY” SUSPENDS ELEPHANT HUNTING IN
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Reference ID |
Created |
Released |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXRO2250
OO RUEHDU RUEHHM RUEHMR RUEHPB RUEHRN RUEHTM
DE RUEHSB #0956/01 2971025
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231025Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3599
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2543
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 000956
SIPDIS
OES FOR A/S CLAUDIA MCMURRAY
AF/S FOR B. WALCH
DRL FOR N. WILETT
CA FOR ELIZABETH GRACON
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR E. LOKEN AND L. DOBBINS
STATE PASS TO NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018
TAGS: SENV PREL ASEC PHUM KDEM ZI
SUBJECT: “QUIET DIPLOMACY” SUSPENDS ELEPHANT HUNTING IN
NATIONAL PARKS – FOR NOW
REF: HARARE 863
Classified By: Ambassador James D. McGee for reason 1.4(d).
——-
SUMMARY
——-
¶1. (C) After issuing commercial hunters hundreds of
questionable permits for elephant hunting in national parks,
the Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Authority (Parks) has
agreed, under pressure from photographic tour operators, to
suspend the hunting. The operation, which only lasted a few
weeks, appears to have failed as hunters and Parks staff
killed animals larger than allowed and outside the parameters
Parks set. Photographic safari operators and
conservationists agree that Zimbabwe’s burgeoning elephant
population should be managed, but Parks’ get-rich, quick-fix
strategy was poorly implemented, involved professional
hunting guides of questionable ethics and connections, and
was ecologically unsound. While photographic safari
operators believe the hunts will likely resume in some form,
they hope their “quiet diplomacy” efforts will keep the issue
out of the media and encourage Parks and the Zimbabwean
Government (GOZ) to seek fully legal and ecologically-sound
means to increase revenue and maintain Zimbabwe’s wildlife.
END SUMMARY.
——————————————— —
Overpopulation of Elephants Needs to be Managed
——————————————— —
¶2. (C) In an August meeting with Dr. Morris Mtsambiwa, the
Director of Parks, poloff asked about rumors of questionable
hunting involving foreign tourists within national parks.
Dr. Mstambiwa unequivocally refuted the hunting rumors. He
said that hunting within national parks is only allowed under
limited circumstances: management quotas (to reduce or
maintain animal populations), ration quotas (to provide
Parks’ staff with meat), or to kill rogue animals. In each
of these cases, animals should be killed by professional
hunters on Parks’ staff. He told poloff that Parks did have
a plan to kill about 1000 elephants in 2008 in four
administrative areas: Hwange, Chizarira, Gonarezhou, and the
Zambezi valley. He termed the program an “elephant
management strategy” that had been approved by the Minister
of Environment, Frances Nhema. Dr. Mtsambiwa said there were
five ecologically responsible means to reduce elephant
populations: translocation of animals, contraception, sale
within the region to conservancies or other interested
parties, chasing, and culling. Zimbabwean Parks’ staff
conducted many successful culls in the 1980s and 1990s. Dr.
Mtsambiwa said the last cull in Zimbabwe was in 1992, and
that current Parks staff did not know how to do it. He told
us that the 1000 elephants, including 400 in Hwange, would be
killed as a training exercise for Parks staff and for
population reduction.
¶3. (SBU) Conservationists, Parks, hunting and photographic
safari operators all agree that Zimbabwe has a serious
overpopulation of elephants. Parks estimates the current
population is about 100,000 elephants, well above Zimbabwe’s
capacity of 40-50,000. This significant overpopulation has a
detrimental impact on levels at watering holes and
biodiversity, as elephants can cause significant damage and
stress to ecosystems. Poloff spoke with numerous
conservationists and former Parks officials who participated
in elephant culls in the 1980s and 1990s. They described a
cull as a highly resource-intensive, dangerous, and gruesome
operation that is also very effective in controlling elephant
populations if done properly. In a cull, an entire family
unit of 10-20 elephants is surrounded on three sides by a
group of armed, trained professional hunters who kill the
entire group in unison. (NOTE: In Zimbabwe all professional
guides and hunters must be certified after having passed
HARARE 00000956 002 OF 004
rigorous written and field tests. END NOTE.) The entire
operation happens very quickly, to prevent traumatized and
scared elephants from stampeding. Professional hunters
stressed the importance of having trained staff present, as
each hunter must select the animal he will shoot and must
kill it with one or two shots. Because the staff surrounds
the elephants, there is a reasonably high risk of shooting
another hunter, in addition to the risks posed by frightened
elephants. Dr. Mtsambiwa repeated this description of a
proper culling operation, and said that very few of his
current Parks staff had this experience. He added that the
current population reduction operation would provide them
with that experience and training. All agreed that an
important component of culling was selecting the correct
animals and family units. Culling should not target large
bulls, groups of adolescent males, or individuals within a
family unit.
——————————-
AmCit Questions Hunting Package
——————————-
¶4. (C) Despite Mtsambiwa’s assurances at our August meeting
that Parks was only planning a management/training exercise
for Parks staff, in early September poloff received an email
from an American citizen in California, asking about an
advertisement for an elephant hunt in Zimbabwe to hunt five
elephants over ten days for USD 6,000 as part of a culling
exercise. The meat from the animals would go to local
villagers and hunters were expected to help with on-site
butchering of the animals. This price is significantly less
than most elephant hunting packages. Normally, elephant
hunting excursions in Zimbabwe cost about USD 1,000 per day,
plus a fee for each animal killed. The hunting operation was
to be led by Zimbabwean Headman Sibanda and was arranged by
Thomas Powers Internationale, based in Colorado.
—————————
Elephants and Ivory Pile Up
—————————
¶5. (C) In mid-September, Sally Bown, Administrative Officer
for the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe (SOAZ),
informed poloff that numerous photographic safari operators
in Hwange National Park were sending emails reporting
commercial elephant hunting incidents within the park to
SOAZ, Parks, and Minister Nhema. Specifically, elephants
were killed in Hwange National Park in areas frequented by
tourists and near main roads within the park. (NOTE: Hwange,
along the Botswana border, is Zimbabwe’s largest national
park and is one of the best areas in the world for elephant
viewing. END NOTE.) The emails contained photos showing
elephant carcasses in various states of decay, large tusks,
and Parks staff vehicles escorting hunters near recently
killed elephants as proof of the questionable hunting. The
photographic safari operators named the professional hunters
who served as commercial guides and indicated that foreign
hunters, including Americans and South Africans, were killing
the elephants with Parks staff assistance.
¶6. (C) Refuting Mtsambiwa’s claims, the safari operators also
reported that some of the hunting guides had been issued
hundreds of hunting permits for elephants in Hwange and other
national parks in mid-to-late August. Normally, hunting
permits are offered in an auction to all professional hunting
guides. In contrast, Bown said these recent permits were
issued through a non-transparent process to professional
hunters of ill-repute, including some South African
operators. (NOTE: Under Zimbabwean regulations, all tenders
should be offered to local companies first. END NOTE.) This
action particularly alarmed photographic safari operators,
whose businesses depend on calm animals in the national parks
who are used to humans and vehicles.
¶7. (C) Meeting with poloff and conoff on October 10, Bown
HARARE 00000956 003 OF 004
said that it was unclear “how legal” these hunting operations
were, since it appeared the hunters had permits issued by
Parks to kill the animals, despite the provision in the
National Parks Act that prohibits commercial hunting. The
photographic safari operators indicated Parks had given
several local and South African hunting companies concessions
to kill elephants in Hwange if they met specific criteria:
(1) total ivory weight less than 30 pounds, (2)
young/adolescent males, (3) isolated areas (i.e. away from
watering holes and main roads), and (4) controlled by Parks
staff. Parks has never publicly stated these criteria or
explained the operation. Frustrated photographic safari
operators weighed and photographed many of the tusks at the
Park’s ivory store in Hwange and found that many were over 30
pounds each. In one case, an operator claimed an American
hunter killed an elephant with tusks weighing over 120
pounds. Photos also show some elephants were killed very
near main roads and close to watering holes. In at least one
reported case, a vehicle drove around the animal before the
hunter killed it at close range. In emails to Mtsambiwa and
Nhema, safari operators decried the unethical hunting both in
terms of the detrimental ecological impact and the negative
impact it would have on their own businesses.
————————————
Unscrupulous Hunting Guides Involved
————————————
¶8. (C) Bown, Save Valley Conservancy Director Clive Stockil
and other conservationists opined in conversations with us
that hunting permits were issued by Parks under intense
pressure from its politicized board and ZANU-PF. Bown
believed this frantic last grab at hunting revenue was one
more aspect of ZANU-PF insiders’ efforts to strip assets and
fill their pockets before losing power to the MDC. She said
that the same small group of hunters involved in this
operation had been consistently involved in unethical and
marginally legal hunting. Bown had no evidence that they
were involved specifically with sanctioned individuals within
the Mugabe regime, but believed such connections were likely.
According to Bown, the Zimbabwean professional hunters
involved include Guy Whitall, Tim Schultz of African Dream
Safaris, Headman Sibanda and Wayne Grant of Nyala Safaris,
Evans Makanza, Alan Shearing, Buzz Charlton and James
Macullam of Charlton Macullum Safaris, A.J. Van Heerden of
Shashe Safaris, Barry Van Heerden of Big Game Safaris, and
Lawrence Boha. (COMMENT: Numerous conservationists have
suggested the Van Heerden brothers are involved in suspicious
hunting and land deals with the Director of the Central
Intelligence Organization, Happyton Bonyongwe, although none
have provided proof of the relationship. END COMMENT.)
Additionally, one safari operator accused an American, by
name, of killing a lion illegally and then smuggling its hide
out through South Africa. Given the rampant smuggling of
other animal products across Zimbabwe’s southern border
(reftel), this is not unlikely. As reported in reftel,
American hunting dollars are vital to Zimbabwe’s conservation
efforts, but there are also serious risks that Americans
could be implicated in smuggling and poaching operations.
——————————————— ——–
Parks Suspends, But Doesn’t Explain Hunting in Hwange
——————————————— ——–
¶9. (SBU) On October 9, Dr. Mtsambiwa issued a statement to
SOAZ and conservationists, without admitting that illegal
commercial hunting had taken place, announcing that Parks was
suspending the management hunting he had told poloff in
August would be the only authorized operation. The statement
reiterated trophy hunting is not allowed in national parks.
However, it conceded the management exercise involved both
trophy and non-trophy animals, as the elephants were not
selected based on size or tusks. It also stated that the
tusks and hides in the current operation were not to be used
for export and that the management offtake was for “training,
HARARE 00000956 004 OF 004
staff rations, support for state and other functions, sale to
crocodile farmers… Meat is also sold cheaply or given
freely to communities to supplement their protein
requirements.” The Parks statement claims Parks had
“embarked on a training exercise for its staff through
engaging some experienced hunters using part of this
management quota.” (COMMENT: Post has neither seen nor heard
of game meat distributions to communities near national
parks. Further, based on the photographic evidence from
Hwange, the most recent operation violates every tenet of a
“proper cull” and instead bears the characteristics of
commercial hunting. END COMMENT.)
————————-
“Quiet Diplomacy” Success
————————-
¶10. (C) In our October 10 meeting, Bown demurred when asked
if SOAZ would consider making the hunting disputes or
unscrupulous hunting more public through local or
international media. She said private land conservancies and
photographic safaris — sectors that remain primarily
white-owned — had been allowed to continue because they had
consistently and quietly proven their economic benefit to the
GOZ. She contrasted SOAZ with the Commercial Farmers Union
that represents white farmers who routinely bring their
grievances to the international media, bringing shame and
rebuke on Zimbabwe and the government. Bown believed that
exposing these internal conflicts over elephant hunting would
only serve to further reduce all tourism and increase
animosity between safari operators and the GOZ, putting the
businesses and wildlife at even greater risk.
——-
COMMENT
——-
¶11. (C) Hunting has long been a source of ill-gotten revenue
for members of the ZANU-PF elite, and given the ongoing
resource grab, it is not surprising that new hunting schemes
have developed to supply the elites with forex. SOAZ’s quiet
efforts succeeded in changing Parks’ policy on hunting within
national parks — for now — and SOAZ is gathering proposals
to present to Parks for means to increase revenue and manage
the elephant population through ecologically and
tourist-friendly means. This ongoing struggle over greed,
ill-gotten forex, and natural resource management is just one
more result of the continued political impasse in Zimbabwe.
END COMMENT.
MCGEE
(89 VIEWS)
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