HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe and Namibia have announced plans to slaughter hundreds of wild elephants and other animals to feed hungry residents as severe drought rages across the southern African countries.
Zimbabwe said on Monday it would allow the killing of 200 elephants so their meat can be distributed to needy communities, while in Namibia the killing of more than 700 wild animals – including 83 elephants – is underway as part of a plan announced three weeks ago.
Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said permits would be issued to needy communities to hunt elephants and the agency would also kill part of the total allocation of 200 animals.
“We will start shooting as soon as we get all the permits,” Farawo said.
The elephants are being taken from an area where the population is no longer sustainable, Farawo said. The hunts are taking place in areas such as Hwange National Park in the country’s arid west, where there is increasing competition between people and wildlife for food and water as rising temperatures make resources scarce.
Hwange has relocated more than 45,000 elephants but now has the capacity to support only 15,000, Farawo said. The country’s total population of about 100,000 elephants is double what the country’s national parks can support, park officials say.
The El Niño weather phenomenon has exacerbated the situation, with the parks agency saying in December that more than 100 elephants had died due to drought. More animals could die of thirst and hunger in the coming weeks as the country enters the hottest period of the year, Farawo said.
Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Sithembiso Nyoni told parliament last week that she had given the green light for the culling programme.
“Zimbabwe does indeed have more elephants than we need, more elephants than our forestry can accommodate,” Nyoni said.
She said the government was preparing “to do what Namibia has done, so that we can cull the elephants and mobilise women to dry the meat, package it and ensure it gets to the communities that need the protein.”
The Namibian government last month approved the cull of 723 animals, including 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 300 zebra and 100 eland.
The animals come from five national parks in Namibia, where the company also wants to reduce the number of elephants due to conflicts between people and wild animals.
“This is necessary and in line with our constitutional mandate, which is to use our natural resources for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” said Romeo Muyunda, spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment. “This is also a good example that wildlife conservation is really useful.”
Botswana, which lies between Zimbabwe and Namibia, has the world’s largest elephant population of 130,000. But unlike its two neighbours, the country has never discussed slaughtering elephants to feed its population.
Guyo Roba, a food security and agriculture expert at the Kenya-based environmental think tank Jameel Observatory, said government measures in Zimbabwe and Namibia were understandable given the extent of the drought and the state of their animal populations.
“They are working against a population of wild animals that is beyond their carrying capacity,” Roba said.
“It may seem controversial at first, but governments are torn between staying true to some of their international conservation obligations and supporting the population,” Roba said.