Tourism and Environment

Zimbabwe game park to receive US$15 million from new wildlife fund

Published

4 years ago

January 5, 2022

HARARE – One of Zimbabwe’s biggest wildlife reserves is to receive US$1 million annually from a brand-new fund to help sustain its operations and fight poaching, German conservationists said on Wednesday.

The money, which will extend for at least 15 years, will help pay for ranger patrols, equipment maintenance and other everyday needs, the park’s partner, the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), told AFP by email.

Zimbabwe’s second largest reserve, the Gonarezhou National Park covers 5,000 square kilometres (2,000 square miles) in the country’s remote southeast.

It is home to at least 11,000 elephants — its name means “the place of the elephant” in the local ChiShona language — as well as to black rhinos, whose numbers are kept secret for security reasons.

The money will come from the Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF), a brand-new international initiative that provides funds to help wildlife havens in poor countries.

“The idea of the Legacy Landscapes Fund is to provide a reliable funding for basic operations in a protected area,” said the FZS’s head of communications, Dagmar Andres-Bruemmer.

The donation to Gonarezhou is “funding ‘to keep the lights on’ in difficult times, so to say,” she said in response to questions emailed by AFP.

National parks that depend on tourism income have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, she noted.

“In some parks in Africa, even basic work such as ranger patrols could not be done due to budget cuts. So poaching picked up significantly.”

The LLF, set up in 2021, is a public-private fund established as a charity under German law to help close the funding gap for biodiversity conservation.

Participants include the French and German governments, Germany’s KfW Development Bank, France’s Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“Protected and wild areas remain the mainstay of biodiversity conservation and our best tool at mitigating climate change across the globe,” said Hugo Van der Westhuizen, director of Gonarezhou Conservation Trust.

“Managing these areas effectively requires long-term commitment in funding.” –AFP

Sports

Zimparks, VFWT join forces to rescue snared elephant

Published

2 weeks ago

August 5, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

A dramatic rescue operation was carried out last week by the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, in collaboration with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks), to save a young female elephant from a wire snare.

According to a statement posted by the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust on Facebook:

“Last week, we received an urgent call from Zimparks about a young female elephant in distress—a wire snare was tightly wrapped around her mouth and tusks.”

The elephant was spotted near Masuwe Lodge, where her herd was peacefully drinking at the waterhole. Acting swiftly, the trust’s team carefully separated the distressed elephant from her herd and darted her, allowing them to remove the snare and collect vital health samples.

Thankfully, the wire hadn’t cut deeply, and the young elephant was soon back on her feet, reunited with her family.

The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust expressed gratitude to Zimparks and Adrian Read for their dedication to protecting wildlife, saying:

“Thank you to Zimparks and Adrian Read for their dedication to protecting our wildlife.”

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Zimparks defends trophy hunting of collared lion in Hwange

Published

2 weeks ago

August 4, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Zimbabwe’s wildlife authority, Zimparks, has defended the killing of a collared lion, Blondie, in Hwange National Park, despite widespread outrage and criticism from conservationists.

According to BBC News, Blondie, a well-known lion studied by University of Oxford academics, was killed by trophy hunters just outside Hwange National Park in late June. The lion was wearing a collar sponsored by Africa Geographic, a safari company, to support long-term conservation efforts.

In a press statement, Zimparks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said:

“Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) confirms that a recent hunt of a collared lion in Hwange National Park was legally conducted, with the necessary approvals and having fully complied with all regulations. Contrary to ongoing speculation, there was no illegality involved in this hunt. While collared animals are marked for research purposes, this does not exempt them from being legally hunted under regulated circumstances. We urge the public to stop spreading wrong information that may cause unnecessary alarm. ZimParks remains committed to transparent wildlife management upholding the regulations in all activities.”

According to BBC News, Simon Espley, CEO of Africa Geographic, expressed his dismay and anger over the incident, saying that Blondie’s prominent collar did not prevent him from being hunted. Espley also noted that Blondie was a breeding male in his prime, contradicting claims that trophy hunters only target old, non-breeding males.

The incident has drawn comparisons to the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015, which sparked widespread outrage and calls for stricter regulations on trophy hunting.

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Renowned conservationist Alan Elliott passes away at 86

Published

2 weeks ago

August 1, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

The conservation world is mourning the loss of Alan Elliott, a pioneering conservationist and tourism operator who passed away this morning around 2AM at Materdei Hospital in Bulawayo.

Elliott, affectionately known as “Mandebele,” was 86 years old.

Photo by Charlene Hewat

Elliott’s contributions to conservation and tourism in Zimbabwe are immeasurable. He was one of the first people to bring tourism to Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest national park, and founded Touch the Wild, a tourism operation that hosted numerous celebrities, including the Queen and Prince Philip.

We then contacted Charlene Hewat, a close associate of Elliott’s Presidential Elephant Research Trust (PERT), to explain further about his conservation work. Hewat described Elliott as an extraordinary conservationist who dedicated his life to protecting elephants. “Alan’s legacy is imprinted on the wild landscapes he loved so dearly and protected so fiercely,” Hewat said in a Facebook post.

In an interview, Hewat elaborated on Elliott’s work, highlighting his efforts to protect elephants in Hwange. “He went and got a decree from President (Robert) Mugabe to protect the presidential elephants, and he received that decree, and they agreed that they would not shoot any elephants within the Dete Hwange area,” Hewat explained.

Elliott’s passing has sent shockwaves throughout the conservation community, with many paying tribute to his remarkable legacy. “He’s a legend. Everybody knows him,” Hewat said. “He was an MP in Hwange, spoke fluent Ndebele, and knew a lot of the ministers. He’s just an amazing man, a legend for Zimbabwe.”

As a testament to his enduring legacy, Elliott had asked Hewat to carry on his work with the Presidential Elephant Research Trust. “It was his vision to promote young Zimbabwean researchers, and that’s something that I share and think we can take forward for the country and for the youth,” Hewat said.