TINASHE MAKICHI
Government is in the process of developing a human-wildlife conflict policy in collaboration with various stakeholders as it gears to foster co-existence between humans and wildlife.
These efforts by government come after conservation success stories have become rare in Zimbabwe where shrinking habitats and environmental degradation are putting tremendous stress on wildlife.
Human-wildlife conflict refers to “any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human, social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations or on the environment.”
As urban and suburban areas expand across the globe, an increasing number of urban cases of human-wildlife conflict are being reported worldwide. In Africa, with rapidly expanding urbanisation, the number of cases of urban human wildlife conflict has been on an increase.
In Kariba, Zimbabwe, which has encroached in the middle of an animal sanctuary, elephants have been reported to cross residential areas, destroying properties and sometimes killing people, often leading to retaliatory killings by local people.
Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Minister Prisca Mupfumira told Business Times that efforts were underway in coming up with a policy.
“We are working towards coming up with that policy to make sure that issues arising around human wildlife conflict are addressed,” said Mupfumira.
The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in a statement to Business Times, noted that it was playing a critical part in the wildlife sector through its wildlife programming and over the years it has partnered different stakeholders in a bid to find robust solutions to some of the major challenges currently facing the sector.
“ZELA is a collaborating partner in the implementation of the project. In partnership with the African Wildlife Foundation and Bio Hub under the leadership of Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, ZELA is facilitating the development of a human-wildlife conflict policy,” ZELA said adding it “appreciates the work government is doing through the department of National Parks in trying to reform and review current policies and legislation in the wildlife sector”.
The human-wildlife conflict policy is a major conservation concern in elephant range countries and a variety of m a n a g e m e n t s t r a t e g i e s have been developed and are practiced at different scales for preventing and mitigating human-elephant conflict. Expansion of human settlements and agricultural fields across Asia and Africa has resulted in widespread loss of wildlife habitat, degraded forage, reduced landscape connectivity, and a significant decline in elephant populations relative to their historical size and overall range. As their habitats shrink, wildlife is p r o g r e s s i v e l y forced into c l o s e r contact w i t h people, resulting in more frequent and severe conflict over space and resources with consequences ranging from crop raiding to reciprocal loss of life.
Current conflict management approaches focus on prevention through exclusion and on-site deterrents, and mitigation via wildlife translocation or selective culling and monetary compensation for losses
According to analysts, these management approaches merely address the symptoms, rather than the underlying drivers of the conflict associated with cultural values, resource use decision-making, and the increasing fragmentation and isolation of wildlife populations.
“We suggest that just as wildlife needs are measured and modelled to improve conservation management planning, information about cultural values, norms, and decisionmaking regarding the spatial and temporal use of habitat to support local livelihoods and household production are also valuable,” said wildlife experts.
