ZIMBABWE - Destruction of wildlife, the environment and sensitive eco-systems

Invaders and invaded cont...

When I bought the farm the idea was to restock the land and introduce a foot and mouth free buffalo herd. I had a 3,000 hectare breeding pen built and put in 26 buffalo. I'd got the double electrified fence completed and just needed to connect everything up but then things started going bad and fences were being stolen. One night people arrived and shot the one bull I had. He wasn't killed but he couldn't walk. I actually managed to help him, and he survived, but by then I realised we couldn't release the buffaloes there so had to take them away. I'm still hoping that one day I can take them back.'

Coetsee can no longer pay for anti-poaching patrols, and on neighbouring Dawlish Estate, only three game scouts remain. Here the poachers go around in gangs threatening the scouts with assegais, bows and arrows, and axes. In February the scouts were attacked by poachers with bows and arrows. One game scout had a shot gun and fired at one of their dogs, but the poachers claim they were shot in the buttocks (medical records don't match up with their statements). The scout is now being accused of attempted murder. The remaining scouts have been disarmed. They continue to be attacked and have to contend with constant intimidation and death threats.

Roy Borlace, the farm's manager says, 'Every weekend the squatters go back to their home and in the last two weeks there's been few people here as they've all gone back to plough on their communal farms before the rains. As soon as that's finished they'll be back here to poach. We've removed over 3,000 snares so far. We also had a favourite horse slaughtered by the 'war vets' who then sold off the meat.' Poaching is so bad in this area that in the hills even all the hyrax have been killed - one poacher was found with a pile of 22. Style shakes his head sadly, 'In the North you'd be lucky to find a squirrel. There's not an animal left, just a few crocodiles and hippos in the rivers.'