Jasper Hloka and Claver Nyuki

Dividends from Government’s Land Redistribution Programme are yielding and boosting the country’s Tourism Industry, A2 farmers practising Wild Life farming said while sharing their testimonies with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment and Tourism at Hwange National Park.

Addressing the Committee, a beneficiary, Gwayi Valley Chairperson, Mark Russell applauded Government for affording them wild life farming rights and empowering the new farmers to make it in the field that has been previously dominated by a minority.

He added that Government demanded no qualification or prerequisites from interested farmers, but had opened the industry to every Zimbabwean. Remarking on their success, Russell told the Committee that “we are now exporters of hunting trophies and hunted trophies, and we are calling on Government to further capacitate us by availing bankable leases which could go a long way in attracting more investors.”

Making her presentation before the same Committee, Hwange National Park Senior Ecologist, Sheryl Mabika indicated that there was a major climb down on the number of elephants killed by poachers, adding that they had successfully prosecuted offenders. Mabika told the Parliamentarians that “so far we have recorded 16 cases of elephant poaching, a major climb down from the 34 recorded same time in 2018. We are, however, calling on Government to upgrade legal statutes to allow for effective prosecution of poachers whose activities and operations are evolving and getting sophisticated by the day.”

In his address, Hwange National Park Area Manager, Chibaya, concluded by revealing that the parastatal had managed to mitigate against human and wild life conflict saying that cases of animal attacks on livelihoods were declining. Chibaya attributed the decline to the involvement of the local communities in wild life management programmes.