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

The whole of our one ranch, Chigwete, has been totally invaded.' Says Whittal, 'They've just about poached most of the game there, built houses, and they've burnt everything out - there's no grass or anything there. We are arresting people and the list is very substantial, but every time you arrest anyone you get tremendous violence - they come in and attack the homestead. It's violence to threaten us not to arrest them for poaching and this has been going on for two years now.

Whilst the police are not always seen to be in favour of the conservancies, there are no hard and fast rules. Certain commissioners are more sympathetic than others and many poachers are convicted and fined (it seems to depend on the status of the man apprehended - if he is a war veteran leader he is more likely to be released). Above the police are the provincial governors whose orders come directly from Mugabe. Governor Josiah Hungwe is currently the self-professed 'supreme power' in the Masvingo District where the worst atrocities have occurred (Save Valley, Chiredzi and portions of Bubiana all come under his jurisdiction). He is also the Chairman of the Provincial Land Committee. To him, all the above evidence is no more than a white conspiracy to discredit the government and he told me last year, 'Poaching is being done by the workers of the conservancies - they want to tarnish the name of Zimbabwe and the President. The police have told me they have arrested so many people - all workers from the conservancies.' He even accused Willie Pabst, one of Save's prominent Conservancy members, as having lied about the poaching. 'He was organising his workers to poach, taking pictures of dead animals with snares on their necks in order to show the outside world that there was a state of lawlessness in Zimbabwe.' Pabst retorts, 'These accusations are too ludicrous for me to pay attention to - this man accuses me of destroying my own assets and beating up my own people! This year we have lost Z$14-15 million (US$300,000) just through the destruction of our assets - our business is dead! Does Hungwe really believe we would do this to ourselves? It's pathetic!'

On an official note, a report compiled by the Department of National Parks on the Conservancy only days after Hungwe's visit to Save last year, stated: 'The settlers pay scant regard to current land use practice in Save Conservancy…. The team was faced with the stark reality of unrestrained snaring, breach of game fences and in some cases indiscriminate killing of animals.' It continues, 'The decision to resettle people in parts of Save Conservancy not only defies logic (particularly under current economic circumstances) but undermines the country's credibility and conservation image beyond redemption.'

In October 2000 I spoke to Hungwe and he insisted that the government's policy stated that the conservancies were not to be taken over and would all be de-listed. The fact that there are squatters on the land was part of a 'misunderstanding' when properties were initially earmarked for takeover. I was informed by the Governor that war veterans were being taken off the properties and resettled on other farms. Exactly a year after my telephone conversation, my own visit to the conservancies confirms that this 'misunderstanding' persists. Far from the government having respected its own rhetoric to de-list the conservancies and remove the squatters, the burning, clearing and poaching of this once beautiful wilderness is now in such an advanced state that in many areas it is virtually irreversible.

For the scouts on Chiredzi, one of the most galling cases they've had to deal with is arresting a fellow scout from one of Zimbabwe's National Parks for illegally fishing in the conservancy. He is one of several members of Gonarezhou National Park who have claimed and cleared land in the Conservancy. One of the National Park's employees, who is clearing the plot whilst the scout performs his duties in Gonarezhou, was also arrested for poaching. The gentleman in question uses a government National Parks vehicle to get to and from his plot. I am told by National Parks in Gonarezhou that they have no resources to fight fire in their own parks, or control the poaching, but it seems they can spare a vehicle and fuel to allow one of their employees to carve up conservancy land. The photo below is the elaborate sign made by the National Parks employee to 'his' plot on conservancy land.

'I feel very angry that they affect our jobs. They kill our animals that we're protecting. They don't want to grow anything, they just want to poach. We arrested the worker for the man from National Parks for poaching impala, bushbuck, water buck and wildebeest. The people from National Parks are supposed to be our superiors, they are people we should be respecting and yet one of the employees of this National Parks' guy is poaching. We think they give the meat to that National Parks guy. The people here want to fix our bosses in order for us to leave so that we can't protect the animals. They don't want to plant. This area is not for growing anything, there's a shortage of rainfall, it would need an irrigation scheme.'

The scout's base camp on Chiredzi was also vandalised by war veterans and squatters in response to a poacher being arrested. The scouts' wives were chased out, their belongings destroyed, windows broken and food thrown all over the floor.

The removal of the perimeter fencing by the poachers to make their snares allows wildlife to disperse from conservancies and the integration of cattle and other livestock into these wildlife areas has also meant the spread of foot and mouth which is carried by buffalo and other wild ungulates. Whilst in the conservancies and in Gonarezhou National Park this November, I witnessed ample evidence of cattle and other domestic livestock roaming freely amongst the wildlife. As a result, in the last few months the country has paid the price for its frantic land grabs and there have been severe outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. This in turn has had major economic implications on a national level as European Union officials have suspended their imports of Zimbabwean beef.