Dehorning of Rhino Halted in Zimbabwe

The Herald (Harare)
27 June 2007

Harare- The rhino dehorning exercise that started last month has been temporarily stopped owing to logistical complications, national wildlife veterinary surgeon Dr Chris Foggin said yesterday.

Dr Foggin said the operation stopped early this month after they had dehorned about 30 rhinos, mostly from the Save Conservancy. "The exercise is a noble one because it seeks to protect our rhino population in private conservancies around the country. "Unfortunately, we are not able to continue with the exercise at the moment because we were having problems in ensuring we had a helicopter all the time, adequate human resources and drugs," Dr Foggin said.

He said the money used to fund the exercise was coming in batches and the team was now waiting for part of the money to be channelled to Zimbabwe. Dr Foggin said much of the money that is expected to fund radio transmitters was coming from Save Foundation Australia while various other international donors concerned about protecting the endangered species in Zimbabwe were also chipping in.

"We are only concentrating on the dehorning exercise at the moment and will do the planting of the transmitters on the rhinos later this year. "Zimbabwe has a population of around 800 black and white rhinos placed in intensive protection zones. The dehorning exercise, which some wildlife experts said was critical, is expected to curb poaching of the rhino for its horn.

Last year the Parks and Wildlife Authority uplifted close to 200 rhinos to a conservancy in Matabeleland South following reports of poaching of the endangered species. The World Wildlife Fund a few weeks ago briefed Environment and Tourism Minister Cde Francis Nhema on the poaching of the rhino in the country. They indicated that at least 40 rhinos had been poached in the last three years despite efforts to rid the country of commercial poaching activities. In an interview, Mr Kit Vaughan, WWF advisor, said Zimbabwe needed to come up with vibrant wildlife management policies and also ensure their effective implementation.

"There is need for practical and professional solutions to the wildlife management challenges. "Interventions should also come in various forms, which include entrusting wildlife management and utilisation of conservancies to people trained in that area," Mr Vaughan said. He said the rhino population went down in the world owing to lack of resounding anti-poaching strategies and lack of seriousness by governments when it comes to conservation issues.