The Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has called for a complete ban on trophy hunting in Zimbabwe saying the exercise is causing unwarranted human-wildlife conflict when agitated animals that have experienced gunfire such as elephants and lions hit back at defenceless villagers in vengeance. By then the trophy hunter would have safely returned to their country.
According to government spokesperson Nick Mangwana, as of September this year, 60 people had been killed by elephants across the country. The number is likely to rise as the dry season reaches its peak. In 2022, 71 people were killed by elephants in Zimbabwe bringing the total to 131 lives lost to the human-wildlife conflict in two years.
The revelations came as the KAZA Elephant Survey report released recently said that there has been a trend where elephants are travelling far distances than before and so in the process end up clashing with people in communities.
The survey covered the Kavango-Zambezi Trans frontier conservation area, one of the world’s largest wildlife conservation land, comprising 520,000 sq kms (210,000 sq miles) within the borders of the five states.
Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe together hold half of the world’s savanna (African bush) elephants.
The survey found out that as the elephants travel far distances, they have been putting pressure on biodiversity and leading to clashes with local people as the animal’s breach human habitats.
In an exclusive interview with THE WEEKLY on Tuesday, CNRG director Farai Maguwu said apart from climate change which is the primary driver of wildlife migration, one of the reasons why elephants are moving deep into communities could be trophy hunting which scares them away from their wildlife habitat.
“Animals are generally easily agitated. Our inquiries from conservancies and tour guides reveal that elephants are very intelligent animals which do not forget easily. They can smell gunfire from past experiences, they allege. So, when elephants hear and smell gunfire from trophy hunters, they travel and move away from the perceived danger in a fit of rage. . There is need for further investigations into this matter what what is undeniable is the violence begets violence.”
“When they see animals being killed by guns during trophy hunting, they get agitated and move deep into forests or the human habitat areas where they trample on people in vengeance.
“When they hear of an incident,Parks officials will track down the ‘problem’ animal, and kill them, sometimes perpetuating the cycle of violence. More often than, they have not dealt with root cause which agitated the animal in the first place, which might be trophy hunting that jolted them out of their habitat,” he said.
The CNRG director added:
“In other circumstances, as the elephants move away from the danger posed by trophy hunters using guns to kill fellow animals, they again move deeper into forests, and it affects tourism. This is so because tour guides will not locate them when they move around parks with tourists on game drives. So trophy hunting is a multifaceted menace.
“Some are even saying that Chobe (in northern Botswana) is now a better area for game drives than Hwange and Victoria Falls.”
He explained a cycle of how elephants as they move into forests fleeing trophy hunting, also attract more animals that depend on elephants for food and security.
“Elephants are ecosystem engineers. As they travel away from danger and move into forests, they uproot big trees and attract herbivores (animals that eat grass, tree bark, aquatic vegetation, and shrubby growth) which will track them to eat leftovers. These will include buffalos, kudus, antelopes, giraffes and zebras that will follow and graze close to them. In turn, carnivores like lions will also breed closer, preying on them. Some animals also feel protected by elephants from predators. So from elephants running away from trophy hunters, this is the endgame,” he said.
Maguwu said under the circumstances and even more others that border on African culture, trophy hunting must be banned.
“As Africans, we know that we kill animals for meat and not for fun. It is against this background and the other factors mentioned above that we say trophy hunting must be abandoned completely,” he said.
Maguwu also debunked the defence for trophy hunting given by the government and the Zimbabwe National Parks which says the activity is done to raise money for broader wildlife conservation.
“That problem of resources for conservation can simply be solved by the government investing more in tourist, facilities so as to boost tourist arrivals, review tourist fees and levies, engage the private sector in public -private partnerships and appeal to animal welfare organizations. Our position is that trophy hunting has so many unintended consequences which hurt the very cause for which it is meant to support.