Source: Minister blames US, EU for poaching- NewZimbabwe 01/06/2016
ENVIRONMENT minister Oppah Muchinguri has claimed that western countries, supported by some African nations without “any wildlife to talk about”, are fueling poaching and stifling economic growth in Zimbabwe.
Muchinguri in Harare Wednesday at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – a 1973 global treaty drawn up to ensure international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The breakfast meeting sought to garner support from African countries ahead of the CITES 17th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 17) to be held in South Africa this September.
Muchinguri said some countries were now using CITES to undermine economic growth in developing countries such as Zimbabwe.
She said the American government banned trophies hunted from Zimbabwe from entering the US while the EU parliament was lobbying for a similar ban in Europe with the support of some wildlife deficient African nations.
“Protectionist approaches do not bring any direct benefits to rural communities that face the brunt of living in perennial problems of human-wildlife conflict,” said the minister.
“A case in point is the move by western countries to ban the importation of elephant and lion trophies in their countries from producer countries such as Zimbabwe.”
Trade bans, Muchinguri added, “have ever saved species from extinction”.
“The rhino species which is now teetering on the brink of extinction has been on the CITIES Appendix 1 for the last 40 years.”
The trade bans only serve to perpetuate “illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching as well as exacerbating human wildlife conflict”.
The environment minister also said that some CITES decision making mechanisms excluded the participation of local people who bear the “brunt of core existing with wildlife”.
“Community based initiatives must therefore be given the support they need to deliver income to local people through legal wildlife utilisation.”
COMMENTS
Perhaps western countries are concerned about the looting and corruption in the system. China does not. Care about how the countries kill the animals and who gets the money. Much in guru should know that when you deal with crooks like the Chinese, it ongoing to be hard to deal with people who demand accountability.
Once again we have a Zimbabwean minister blaming someone else, for the challenges facing the country, and not their own policies and programmes. The main factor mitigating against economic growth in Zimbabwe is the government of Zimbabwe and not CITES, the West or the Man in the Moon.
If the United States, or the European Union, does not want wild life product from Zimbabwe that is their business and the relevant sovereign Zimbabwean minister must just deal with it. Find alternative markets, Look East, for example, and stop whining.
The last time this particular minister drifted into my awareness she was huffing, puffing and threatening an American citizen for shooting old Cecil, with a cross bow, adding her voice to the hullabaloo that has lead to this move by the US government.
Local people “bearing the brunt” must look to their governments to come up with sustainable and beneficial policies which is not the same thing as blaming other over toast and coffee.
It is without doubt and proven time and time again that every mishap in Zimbabwe has an external cause. Mugabe and ZANU are blatantly blameless.
How do you get to be a minister without having any identifiable brain?
OK, I get that she toes the party line and just reads out whatever speech is given to her by her politburo puppet masters, fine.
The truth about the ivory ban to the US is that it applies to trophies only. Americans can still come and hunt elephant and many still do. The moratorium was put in place because of the failure of the Zimbabwe government to provide data requested so that regulatory agencies would be satisfied that hunting did not pose a threat to the survival of the species, which it does not. So here again , let’s blame someone else for our own screw-ups.
Does the “minister” know the difference between legal sport hunting which brings in revenue fir conservation and illegal poaching which steals from the country and its people? I think not.