Mail & Guardian
October 25, 2001
Experts warn that south-eastern Zimbabwe is sitting on a foot-and-mouth
time bomb, reports Jenny Sharman
In the excitement about the formation of the Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou
trans-frontier park, a looming problem has been overlooked: land
invasions in the Zimbabwe section of the park.
The planned "peace park" includes Zimbabwe's second-largest
game park, the Gonarezhou National Park and its wildlife environs,
along with Kruger park and a large slice of state-owned land in
Mozambique's Coutada 16 conservation area - a total of 35 000km2.
Last November, as the agreement was being signed to establish the
park, sections of Gonarezhou were being occupied, cleared and set
alight by residents of neighbouring villages and "war veterans".
The invasion of Gonarezhou is the latest in a line of crises to
hit Zimbabwe's wildlife since the current "fast-track"
resettlement programme moved into key conservation areas.
As a member of a proposed peace park, it is ironic that historically
Gonarezhou has rarely been at peace. In Shona gona-re-zhou means
"abode of elephants", but for the elephant it has not
been a safe abode; poaching has long been prevalent in this south-eastern
corner of Zimbabwe.
In the late 1960s large-scale agriculture began encroaching on
the area, and poaching, coupled with tsetse fly controls that included
bush burning and shooting, resulted in the destruction of 55 000
large animals. In response, Alan Wright, a local district commissioner,
helped establish a wildlife refuge and a poaching control corridor
along the Mozambique border. About 5,000km2 of prime wilderness
was designated as a reserve, and in 1975 this corner of Zimbabwe
was declared a national park.
The local Shangaan people were forced to resettle outside the park's
boundaries - an act that has caused major discontent in the area
ever since.
The formation of a park did little to stop the unnatural deaths
of the resident elephants. During the war of independence Gonarezhou
was landmined extensively and elephant and buffaloes are still being
maimed by the mines.
In the 1980s and 1990s poaching by Mozambican guerrillas, fighting
their own civil war across the border, also took its toll. It is
estimated that between 1987 and 1988 alone nearly 1,000 elephants
and 200 black rhinos were poached from the park. It is not surprising
that elephants in Gona-rezhou respond to the presence of humans
with either fear or aggression.
Now Josiah Hungwe, the Governor of Masvingo, who is already responsible
for the invasion of privately owned wildlife conservancies, has
been encouraging families of the previously evicted Shangaan, as
well as opportunistic "war veterans", to take over 11
000ha within Gonarezhou, north and south of the Runde river.
The situation escalated as Agritex (the Agricultural and Rural
Extension Department) began demarcating and pegging out plots for
allocation within the park.
The invasion appears to have been carried out without the permission
- or knowledge - of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. In
fact environment minister Francis Nhema initially denied it: "What
has happened is that some cattle strayed into the park but our guys
from parks are working on that. There are no people physically within
the park at all," he said as news of the invasion began to
spread.
It soon became apparent that Nhema was wrong. A senior national
parks officer wrote the following in a letter to his headquarters
shortly after the takeover: "The Agritex officer stated that
his teams pegged some 520 plots but the area had capacity to take
750 settlers ... Cattle are being grazed daily inside the park.
The numbers are never less than 500 in the park per day. The cattle
fence has been put down, allowing free movement of cattle in and
around the park."
The removal of fencing and driving of cattle into buffalo land
could result in a serious outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Mike
Clark, regional chairperson of the Masvingo Commercial Farmers'
Union, says "we have no foot-and-mouth vaccine due to the forex
shortage. We are therefore sitting on a foot-and-mouth time bomb."
Clark has found evidence of cattle in the park and substantial
destruction of natural habitat.
"When we followed one of the cattle trails we came across
people building elaborate Shangaan-style huts, about 6km into the
reserve."
Raoul du Toit of the World Wide Fund for nature's Zimbabwe office
has said that the issues involved are more complex than simply a
threat to the integrity of the national park. The Shangaan people
do have a serious land claim to this area but, Du Toit says, "the
issue needs to be assessed in the context of the land crisis which
is engulfing the nearby conservancies".
"The biodiversity value of the basalt plain that has been
invaded within Gonarezhou is relatively low. If this land claim
is to be resolved, this may act as a pressure-relief valve that
would reduce the land invasion threat in conservancy areas with
higher biodiversity value. However, the resolution of this land
claim within Gonarezhou must take into account the constraints on
dry-land agriculture and a wildlife-based land-reform model must
be considered.
"The other crucial factor to take into account is that any
resettlement must not cut off the wildlife corridors between the
park and adjacent private wildlife areas such as Malilangwe and
Save valley."
There has been extensive poaching in the neighbouring Save and
Chiredzi conservancies since the government's resettlement programme
began more than a year ago. The poaching is clearly commercial in
nature and, it would appear, politically motivated.
Recently, in response to the arrest of nine poachers for having
abducted a game scout, the war veterans began dropping off poachers
by vehicle throughout Save.
"One must remember that this is not a spontaneous groundswell,
but totally orchestrated by the party [Zanu-PF]," says Clark.
Malilangwe, Save and Chiredzi are key areas adjacent to Gonarezhou.
They, and the communities involved in various Communal Areas Management
Programme for Indigenous Resources and trust projects, all stand
to benefit from the peace park as long as the corridor that joins
them with the park remains free of human settlement. Once the peace
park is operational, there is enormous potential in creating a wider
trans-frontier conservation area extending into these private and
communal lands. The entire economy of south-eastern Zimbabwe could
benefit as a result.
However, these issues are clearly not being debated - or even considered
- in Zimbabwe's political scramble for land. Instead of limiting
the invasion to a controllable area, it has now been extended along
the park boundary, and along the boundary with Malilangwe. Derek
de la Harpe, Malilangwe's director, reports that these plots have
already been extensively cleared. He says that "any development
isolating Malilangwe and the conservancies from the park will in
the long term be to everyone's detriment. Malilangwe is committed
to assisting with restocking the park once our own wildlife populations
have been restored to an acceptable level. This will not be possible
if the connection between the two areas is cut."
Residents in the Chizvirizvi resettle-ment area were hoping to
involve themselves in a wildlife and hunting/ tourism project based
on the proposed peace park. If their land does not adjoin the park
there is little chance of it happening.
The Zimbabwe government publicly abandoned its plans for resettlement
in the Gonarezhou National Park in July after a meeting of the trans-frontier
park ministerial committee. However, fires and bush clearing within
the park and along its boundaries continues unabated. Hungwe continues
to insist that the demarcated plots will be settled, despite official
promises to the contrary.
There are already suggestions that the removal of the fence has
been disastrous for the region's livestock. Clark has heard reports
that "several hundred head [of cattle] have died from suspected
theileriosis, as there are no dipping facilities. Through my experience
this is transmitted by the tick, Rhipicephalus zambeziensis, which
occurs through buffalo/cattle transmission.
"The ownership dispute should urgently be addressed by government
so that effective disease control barriers can be erected."
"The ownership dispute should urgently be addressed by government
so that effective disease control barriers can be erected."
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