Don’t cull Elephants to feed the hungry. It will take more than a culling of 200 hundred jumbos to alleviate hunger gripping millions of Zimbabweans.
By Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe’s government is blundering its way to solutions to alleviate a debilitating hunger crisis. It is not a pretty sight, as the somewhat clueless or culling solutions are poorly thought out. According to the World Food Program (WFP), an estimated 6 million people are expected to be food insecure in Zimbabwe during the 2024-2025 lean season (January to March).
For the greater part of the year, even as hunger set in and economic sentiment curdled, the stimulus of easing measures was half baked suggesting that the government’s plans to address hunger were limited.
The country is reeling in poverty, ominous statistics from WFP show. At least 42% of the country’s 15.2 million population is living in extreme poverty, and 26.7% of children have stunted growth.
“Factors such as widespread poverty, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, limited employment opportunities, and recurrent climate-induced shocks contribute to food insecurity,” states a WFP country brief on Zimbabwe.
This calls for a holistic approach to addressing contemporary challenges, the current hunger crisis and an even bigger food insecurity challenge including, not the least a reactionary culling of a mere 200 elephants.
The culling exercise has since commenced without clear modalities on the distribution of meat to the hunger-stricken villagers and the disposal of elephant skin, and tusks- which have considerable commercial value.
The Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife recently announced its intention to cull 200 jumbos, to feed hungry villagers ostensibly, and to lessen the strain on resources caused by the growing elephant population.
The mood shift began with the announcement on 11 September, by Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Dr. Sithembiso Nyoni, who told Parliament that Zimbabwe had more elephants than the environment could sustain.
“Zimbabwe has more elephants than we need and more than our forests can accommodate,” said Dr. Nyoni, justifying the culling decision.
“We are having a discussion with ZimParks and some communities to do like what Namibia has done so that we can cull the elephants and mobilize the women to maybe dry the meat, package it, and ensure that it gets to some communities that need the protein.”
Two days later, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority promised to arrest the decline in the carrying capacity of its natural conservancies and to fight a bludgeoning elephant population by culling.
The director general of ZimParks, Fulton Mangwanya said under government instruction that the culling process of the 200 elephants would be targeting areas where they had clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe’s largest natural reserve.
However, ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo then confirmed that the culling was aimed at addressing carrying capacity challenges and helping feed hungry citizens.
He said the elephant meat would be distributed to communities in Zimbabwe affected by the El Nino-induced drought, that has swept across southern Africa.
For a government with a track record of poor custodianship of natural resources oscillating behind such a flimsy reason of feeding hungry citizens has raised concerns for natural resource watchdogs like the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG).
Farai Maguwu, executive director of CNRG has been vocal against the proposed move saying the culling of elephants must be stopped for ethical reasons. Posting on his X micro-blogging handle he criticised the move.
“Some are eying an opportunity to sell ivory, illicitly – what with these private jets flying out week in, week out. With the way minerals are being looted, soon we won’t have any elephants to talk about. Hands off our wildlife!”
CNRG has also released a report, condemning this move-also called out by other conservationists and animal rights groups like Peta as shortsighted, cruel, and ineffective.
“The proposed slaughter of elephants could open the floodgates to poaching in a region where 28,000 elephants are killed by poachers annually.
“Elephants are a national heritage, and future generations have the right to see them in their natural habitats. Contrary to claims of overpopulation, the elephant population is actually in decline, which is concerning for a country that relies heavily on tourism,” the report stated.
CNRG is also urging the government to reconsider its decision to distribute elephant meat to citizens, citing concerns about the potential risks of zoonotic diseases associated with consuming meat from wild animals. These diseases, which jump from animals to humans, are responsible for a staggering 75% of all emerging infectious diseases, with more than 70% originating from wild species.
“By feeding citizens elephant meat, the government is exposing them to zoonotic diseases. The World Health Organization has warned that meat or by-products of wild animals are particularly high-risk due to the large number of new or undocumented pathogens found in some populations.”
Zimbabwe is home to an estimated 84,000 elephants – the second-biggest population in the world after Botswana. Due to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to over 50,000 elephants, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.
The country, which is lauded for its conservation efforts and growing elephant population, has been lobbying the U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to reopen the trade of ivory and live elephants.
Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Angola, is home to over 200,000 elephants, making it one of the largest conservation areas for the species in the world. Despite the ongoing debate, Zimbabwe continues to weigh the benefits of culling against the potential risks to both human health and wildlife conservation.
The proposed measures to cull wildlife represent an unprecedented change in the style and methodology of Zimbabwe’s approach to food insecurity and human-wildlife conflict, albeit with flimsy justification.
Compared with government spending and priorities, in particular, the recent splurge on luxury vehicles for Chiefs, the latest culling of elephants cannot be justified beyond a reasonable doubt as well calculated.
Culling of wildlife should be a last resort according to the SADC Elephant Management Framework (2012) considered after other management options have been exhausted. This should be science-based decision-making, with transparency and accountability measures incorporated.
In Zimbabwe’s case even if all the capacity concerns and human-wildlife conflict issues have been raised, the culling of 200 elephants lacks the necessary scale, to address the challenges and alleviate food insecurity.