Zimbabwe says don’t punish us for good wildlife management

Zimbabwe stands to lose millions in revenue generated from wildlife trade, putting its sustainable conservation practises under threat if the forthcoming Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting bars the country from conducting elephant and lion trophy hunting, officials said today.

CITES, an international treaty focusing on protection of flora and fauna, is holding its Conference of Parties (COP17) in Johannesburg, South Africa from September 24 to October 5.

Top on its agenda is a proposal by some developed and African countries to have Zimbabwe’s elephant and lion populations moved from Appendix 2 to Appendix 1, which provides for stricter measures in commercial trade in the species.

But Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the move was tantamount to interference with the country’s sovereign right on use of its wildlife resources, which it has successfully managed since independence.

“Zimbabwe is worried by the tendency of developed countries to treat our elephants as the global commons,” he said launching the country’s roadmap to the CITES COP17.

“Zimbabwe’s wildlife is part of our national, natural heritage and we know how to manage and use it for sustainable national and community development.”

The country has about 13 percent of its total surface area, amounting to 390 757 square meters gazetted as wildlife protected areas.

It was unusual, Mnangagwa said, that “countries which do not have an inch of land” set aside for wildlife and had decimated their animal populations were trying to lecture Zimbabwe on how to manage its game.

“We are being punished for good wildlife management,” he said.

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