Zimbabwe: Jumbo Losses for Country

Zimbabwe: Jumbo Losses for Country
Financial Gazette (Harare)

March 21, 2007

Synodia Bhasera And Christella Langton
Harare

ZIMBABWE will lose over US$15 million each year for the next 20 years if a proposed ban on ivory trade succeeds, parks officials say.

Kenya and Mali have proposed a trade ban in raw or manufactured ivory in Zimbabwe, arguing that allowing any further trade in ivory would spur elephant poaching.

According to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, if the proposal succeeds, the lucrative trophy hunting business would be badly hurt.

"We have opposed the proposal considering how much we are going to lose. Already we have lost much through research and travel. A single (hunted) elephant gives us about US$30 000. Imagine how much the authority is likely to lose if the proposal succeeds," said Morris Mutsambiwa, the authority's director.

Kenya and Mali will present their proposals on the ban at this year's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting, which is to be held in the Netherlands in June.

Zimbabwe is currently battling an overpopulation of elephant, with the estimated annual population growth rate of 5 percent. Parks fears that the animals would pose a further threat to the environment and human life if hunting is banned. A survey conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature showed that Zimbabwe's elephant population stands at more than 100 000, against a carrying capacity of 47 000. Hwange National Park alone has an elephant population of 45 000.

The authority has set up a national technical committee comprising experts from the public and private sector to produce a document on elephant management and sustainability, which would be used to counter the ban campaign.

"We are preparing documents that will answer issues raised as justification for the proposal. We will have meetings with Namibia, South Africa and Botswana to discuss strategies. We will then move into SADC (the Southern African Development Community) to form a common position," Mutsambiwa said.

CITES banned international commercial trade in ivory in 1989 but in 1997, after recognising that some southern African elephant populations were healthy and well managed, permitted Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to make a one-time sale of ivory to Japan.

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