Outdated wildlife law inflicts misery on Zimbabweans living near animals

Government will review the Wildlife Act and proposed instruments in October

(EL)

By Mary Mundeya for The NewsHawks

Abednigo Moyo of Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe was harvesting mopane worms (amacimbi) when he survived a near-death experience from a leopard attack.

He found himself wrestling the vicious cat which he miraculously fended off by shoving his hand into its mouth and blocking its windpipe.

He said that sometime in January 2020, alongside his brother and his wife, he went to Gumela Farm owned by William Ncube and sought permission to harvest amacimbi at his property, which they were granted.

As he was harvesting the mopane worms, all of a sudden he heard an unusual sound of something approaching from the thicket.

“Before I could even see or react, a leopard emerged charging towards me. I tried to run but it was too late, the predator attacked me and I don’t know how I gathered the strength and managed to grab it by the neck before it could savage me. However, the grip was not strong and the leopard freed itself but it slipped and lost balance. I realised that if I don’t do something the animal would kill me. It was either I die fighting or I get mauled,” he said.

When the leopard opened its mouth ready to sink its teeth on him, he shoved his hand into its mouth and grabbed its windpipe.

“It was painful because at the same time, the leopard was biting my hand but I was choking it from inside while the other hand was fending off its claws. I was also screaming at the same time. The struggle went on for a minute or two and I could see the animal was also losing power from the choke,” he said.

For all his efforts to save his life, he was later arrested and charged for killing an endangered animal.

Moyo’s story is typical of what Zimbabweans in wildlife-rich areas go through on a daily basis as a result of the current outdated laws that govern wildlife management and protection.

In 2020, 78-year-old Amos Moyo of Thukani village located on the edge of Hwange National Park was ordered by a court to compensate the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management

Authority (ZimParks) US$20,000 (£17,300) after he killed a leopard that had attacked him in the bush.

Pained by the loss of his goat that had been devoured by the marauding leopard and subsequently reporting the incident to the authorities of the incident to no avail, Moyo used an axe handle to finish off the leopard that had been caught by a trap he had set in the Vulamashava bush.

Since the beginning of 2022 to date, 45 people have been killed while 40 others have been left injured due to human-wildlife conflict and the problem is expected to skyrocket as the dry season in which animals encroach into human settlements in search of food and water is fast approaching.

Over the years, those injured as a result of human-wildlife conflict have received sporadic and inefficient medical assistance from rural district councils (RDCs) and ZimParks. On the other hand, families of deceased persons are being left without any form of compensation.

Not only have the outdated laws escalated human-wildlife conflict, they have also led to difficulties in the prosecution of wildlife cases and increased cases of animal trafficking from other counties through Zimbabwean borders.

In November 2020, the government of Zimbabwe began a process to review the Parks and Wildlife Act (Chapter 20:14) of 1975 in a bid to make sure that it best reflects the current needs of society and is in line with international best practice.

However, conservationists such as international animal law advocate Ever Chinoda, founder of Speak Out For Animals, are bemoaning the snail’s pace at which the review is being done, a move Chinoda said is mostly benefitting poachers and animal traffickers at the expense of Zimbabwe’s wildlife heritage.

“The ongoing review of the Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975 is a step in the right direction for us as a nation, even though the snail’s pace at which it’s moving is disadvantageous to our wildlife and benefitting poachers and animal traffickers.”

“The current Act has a lot of loopholes that need to be swiftly amended so that we have a law that speaks to wildlife crime without us relying on other pieces of legislation when prosecuting cases. As we speak, our definition of wildlife is only limited to animals indigenous to Zimbabwe which proved problematic, for example when we were handling a case involving 25 juvenile monkeys that had been trafficked from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The culprits ended up serving six-month jail sentences for cruelty to animals because we couldn’t charge them with the bigger charge of wildlife trafficking since the monkeys were not native to Zimbabwe,’’ she said.

Chinoda added that apart from the amendments, there is also need for the consolidation of the various statutory instruments that had been put in place to deal with different wildlife cases.

“We have more than 10 statutory instruments and other laws that regulate the possession, use and management of wildlife; they should all be consolidated into one law which makes things easier.”

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson Tinashe Farawo told The NewsHawks that the Parks and Wildlife Management Act in recent times had done more harmthan good not only to animals but also to humans.

“The current Act is a colonial document that does not speak to the realities of the day. Individuals like Mr Moyo from Matabeland South’s Matobo district have been charged and convicted of poaching, after killing a leopard that had attacked him on a farm.”

“Our goal is to come up with a document that speaks to the aspirations of Zimbabweans in a manner that allows them to live in harmony with nature as they will be benefiting from their wildlife,’’ Farawo said.

National coordinator and chief director for climate, environment and meteorological services in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Professor Prosper Matondi attributed the slow pace at which the reviewing process has been going to the different proposals from stakeholders that they have had to take into consideration as well as the current backlog at the Attorney-General’s office.

“The reason why there has been a slow pace in regards to the passing of the final policy is there are different propositions from stakeholders, some of which have been requiring us to negotiate with them so that we reach a consensus. For example, there is a disagreement between communities who don’t want to be part of the Community Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (Campfire) and rural district councils over non-beneficiation from wildlife.”

“Due to the current backlog at the Attorney-General’s office, we have liaised with him and he has agreed to address all the legal instruments we have presented to him all at once in October,” he said.

This article is reproduced here as part of the African Conservation Journalism Programme, funded in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by USAID’s VukaNow: Activity. Implemented by the international conservation organization Space for Giants, it aims to expand the reach of conservation and environmental journalism in Africa, and bring more African voices into the international conservation debate. Read the original story here.