ZIMBABWE - Destruction of wildlife, the environment and sensitive eco-systems

THE POACHERS

I interviewed three arrested poachers on Chiredzi to try and understand the issue from their perspective. Two were being employed by businessmen from Chiredzi to clear the land whilst a third was employed by a section manager at the Mkwasine Sugar Estate who has obtained a 50 acre plot on the conservancy. Clutching on to the head of a dead warthog he'd trapped in a snare, the poacher told me he was being paid Z$8000 (US$160) to clear the plot and build a house.. He did not have his own plot and nor did he want one, he simply wanted enough money to leave Zimbabwe and go to South Africa! He was already on a kidnap charge for having been part of a gang accused of abducting and threatening a group of scouts. He was due to go to court the following day. He insisted that he'd only been killing animals to feed himself. He was found patrolling in an area of over 20 snares, two of which had snared the warthog and a kudu. He couldn't answer me as to why, if he was only feeding himself, he needed to kill so many animals.

The scouts said he was afraid of being beaten up by his accomplices and that's why he would not reveal whom he was poaching for on such a large scale. When asked if this was true, he denied it. One of the scouts explained to me, 'Most of the poachers say that they use the meat for consumption, but they're taking it to sell in Chiredzi - door to door. They don't take it to a market, selling bush meat is illegal. They're getting between Z$50-100 (US$1-2) per kilogram for the meat and they taunt us that we are working for nothing, they say that they could afford to pay us because they are getting more money for meat than we are as scouts.'

I later confirmed this during an interview with two other poachers who told me they were selling the meat in order to get money. One man's employer had not paid him for clearing the plot for two months so he needed to sell the meat to support his family. Another needed money to pay his father-in-law the bride price for his wife. On asking whether his employer took the bushmeat, he replied, 'He came to pick up the meat today in a Nissan pick-up.' He however denied that the employer had asked him to poach, he'd simply arrived, seen the meat and offered to sell it on their behalf. In some incidents, the police have been unwilling to arrest certain poachers (possibly as they are senior war veterans) and have told the conservancy that they are allowed to poach as it's now their land. I asked the poachers if they believed this. 'No I don't believe that, some of my partners believe that. I can't believe that because I know that it is illegal. I can't say that it is our land, but what I really need is money in order to help myself,' was one man's reply.