Zimbabwe to sell hunting rights for endangered elephants to raise money for its parks
The right to shoot an elephant will cost trophy hunters between $10,000 and $70,000
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Zimbabwe will reportedly sell the hunting rights to 500 elephants in order to help the upkeep of its cash-strapped national parks.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a collapse in visitor numbers in the country as foreign tourists have been unable to travel due to lockdown restrictions.
Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, told CNN the lack of revenue was the main driver for the move.
Farawo said: “We eat what we kill. We have a budget of about $25 million for our operations which is raised - partly - through sports hunting, but you know tourism is as good as dead at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
In a separate interview with Bloomberg Farawo said that the right to shoot an elephant will cost trophy hunters between $10,000 and $70,000, depending on the size of the animal.
“How do we fund our operations, how do we pay our men and women who spend 20 days in the bush looking after these animals?”
“Those who are opposed to our management mechanism should instead be giving us the funding to manage better these animals,” Farawo added.
The announcement comes just weeks after a new conservation assessment warned that African elephants are at increasing risk of extinction due to the dual threats of poaching for ivory and loss of habitat.
Forest elephants are now listed as critically endangered, at the highest risk of extinction, and savanna elephants are endangered in the new International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
The two species have seen significant declines over the past few decades, with numbers of forest elephants falling by more than 86% over 31 years and savanna elephants declining by at least 60% over half a century, experts said.
Simiso Mlevu, a spokeswoman for the Center for Natural Resource Governance, a Zimbabwe environmental group, told CNN: ”“We strongly condemn trophy hunting -- a practice that agitates wild animals and escalates human-wild life conflicts.
“It is almost certain that surviving families of wildlife families that witness the senseless gunning down of their family members mete out vengeance on the hapless local villagers.”
Zimbabwe currently has around 100,000 elephants, the second largest population in the world.
Additional reporting by agencies
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments