At least 40 rare black rhinos have been poached in Zimbabwe in national parks and private game reserves in the last three years, reports said on Saturday.
Zimbabwe’s black rhino population is under siege from poachers, Melody Maunze of the Harare office of the WWF was quoted as telling the official Herald newspaper.
”We are concerned about the increasing levels of poaching in conservancies in particular and some state parks,” Maunze said.
Lack of tight anti-poaching mechanisms and more deterrent penalties by the courts had also been worrying conservationists working with the WWF, the Herald reported Maunze as saying.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a huge increase in poaching following the launch of a controversial land reform programme seven years ago that saw the forcible takeover of white-owned farms, many of which had private game sanctuaries on them.
The parcelling out of land in some wildlife reserves and ranches to farmers by district land committees is ongoing, the paper said.
Efforts should be made to work with communities now settled in some conservancies to constructively engage in wildlife management, the WWF spokesperson said.
An unprecedented economic crisis in the country that has seen inflation spiralling to a national record of more than 2 200% and worsening poverty has also caused an increase in poaching by people struggling to survive amid the crisis.
Zimbabwe’s black rhino population came close to extinction in the 1980s at the hands of poachers thought to come from neighbouring Zambia.
In the 1990s, many of the animals were moved from the Zambezi Valley to game reserves on private land inside the country to avoid poachers’ guns, but have now fallen prey to locals.
The rhino horn is coveted for dagger handles in the Middle East and is ground down as a component in traditional medicine in Asia. ‒ Sapa-DPA