President Mnangagwa is expected in Botswana today to attend
the crucial Elephant Summit taking place in the tourism town of Kasane.
The Summit commenced on the 3rd of May and will conclude
tomorrow after the Heads of State meeting.
The ground-breaking summit seeks to establish a common
ground on the management of the elephant population within the region.
Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister
Prisca Mupfumira will meet her counterparts from the region today to lay the
ground work ahead of the Head of States meeting set for tomorrow.
Zimbabwe, whose elephant population is second to Botswana
in the world, has joined forces with regional nations in pushing for countries
with high jumbo population to be allowed to exercise various management methods
which include trophy hunting, culling and sale of ivory to raise revenue which
can be channelled towards wildlife management.
The Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species
(CITES) in flora and fauna which convenes later this year has banned
international trade in ivory – a position that Zimbabwe and her regional
counterparts strongly contest.
In an interview with our Harare Bureau held on the
sidelines of the summit yesterday, Zimparks director general Mr Fulton
Mangwanya confirmed that a common ground on elephant population management has
been established.
“The technical committee meetings have concluded and
deliberations have been made on what we are going to present to the ministers
who will meet tomorrow (today).
“The common position is that we believe in sustainable
management of natural resources,” said Mr Mangwanya.
“We are fighting tooth and nail with our enemies so that we
are allowed to trade in our wildlife resources. The main contention is the
elephants which we (Zimbabwe) are not allowed to benefit from.
“These are the issues that we want to defend as a region if
we are to go to the CITES meeting later this year.”
The Kasane Elephant Summit will be graced by Heads of
States from countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region.
Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe make up the
KAZA region which is home to over 250 000 elephants – 75 percent of the world’s
jumbo population.
Zimbabwe has been grappling with human wildlife conflict
issues with hundreds of deaths caused by elephants recorded in recent years.
Vast hectares of crops have also been destroyed by these
animals leaving communities who share boundaries with elephants facing hunger.
Herald
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