By Basildon Peta
Conservationists in Zimbabwe are rallying international support to protest against the latest bizarre move by President Robert Mugabe's regime - an order to shoot thousands of buffalo at private conservancies "to contain foot-and-mouth disease".
The conservationists say the order is not only "stupid", but it would also kill off the little that is left of Zimbabwe's tourism sector which has shrunk to 15 percent since the disturbances in the country began in 2000.
Officials from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management started descending on private game parks this week, telling owners that the government had decided to destroy all buffalo on private land to eliminate the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Wilfried Pabst, who owns the Save Valley Conservancy, said his workers had been informed that foot-and-mouth had cost Zimbabwe its beef markets in Europe.
Said Pabst, a German national and key investor in Zimbabwe's tourism: "What is happening in Zimbabwe makes the Chinese cultural revolution in the 1960s look like a picnic."
Alternatively, Pabst said, the national parks officials had indicated that all the buffalo in the private game parks could be seized and moved into the government's national parks to control their movements.
But this too was not an option as fences at most national game parks were destroyed at the height of farm invasions last year, leaving the buffalo in the parks to roam freely and mix with cattle in villages.
Environment and tourism minister Francis Nhema made an impassioned plea last year for land invaders to spare the national game parks in which thousands of animals have been killed. One of Zimbabwe's biggest game parks, Gonarezhou, was invaded and a large chunk of its perimeter fence was destroyed by the land invaders last year.
"Any sensible government would replace these fences rather than resort to the outrageous move of killing animals," said Pabst.
Dr Salmon Joubert, the retired executive director of the Kruger National Park who is doing some consultancy work in Zimbabwe, said: "This decision (to kill buffalo), as I have been informed, ranks as one of the most futile and bizarre moves that anyone can imagine. It does not meet realistic practical demands and it won't help them (the government) achieve their goals."
Apart from the buffalo, many other cloven-hoofed animals such as impala and kudu are carriers of foot-and-mouth. Zimbabwe would therefore have to exterminate all these animals to achieve its goals.
Efforts to get comment from Nhema failed.
But junior government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity said they thought the cabinet's decision may have been prompted by the failure of private game owners to maintain good fencing to contain their animals and control movement.
Pabst dismissed the charge saying the lawless destruction of fences on both private and national game parks in Zimbabwe by government supporters had been well documented. After destruction the fences were used to make snares to kill animals. He said he had recovered more than 30 000 snares on his property and lost more than 10 000 animals.
"There is total lawlessness here and no one can continue putting up fences only for them to be destroyed the next day. If the government restores law and order I will be happy to re-install all the fences destroyed by the war veterans," he said.
Jonny Rodrigues, the chairman of Zimbabwe's Conservation Task force, said there was a small number of animals left in Zimbabwe after the government allowed conservancies to be invaded and occupied. "Unless we have a change of government, it seems we are powerless to stop this tragedy which is unfolding daily. There is very little wildlife left here now." - Independent Foreign Service