Poachers Kill 84 Elephants in Zimbabwe Park
11/22/99
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Title: Poachers kill 84 elephants in Zimbabwe park
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 22, 1999
HARARE, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Poachers have killed about 84 elephants,
including calves, in one of Zimbabwe's national parks since the
beginning of the year, wildlife industry officials said on Monday.
Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper reported on Monday that 31 of
the 84 elephants were killed in Chewore National Park in the northern
Zambezi Valley in the last two weeks in an upsurge in poaching
allegedly sponsored by countries trying to undermine Harare's
campaign for the lifting of a world ban on ivory trade.
``All we can tell you is that there has been a lot of poaching in the
last few months, and that the Herald story is correct,'' said an
official with the government Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Management.
The Herald said two suspected poachers were shot and killed by
Zimbabwean game scouts, others fled into neighbouring Zambia and one
gave himself up in recent anti-poaching operations in the parks
bordering Zambia.
It said 42 tusks were recovered, and last week 10 elephant carcasses,
seven of them calves, were found.
A poacher who surrendered to Zimbabwean authorities confessed that
many poachers were sponsored by some Western governments and
organisations and a few West African states determined to stop the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) from
giving Zimbabwe further concessions in selling ivory.
Zimbabwe, which has an elephant population of over 70,000, was this
year allowed to sell 20 tonnes of ivory by CITES.
Two other southern African countries -- Botswana and Namibia -- also
sold ivory to Japan this year under the special CITES dispensation on
the grounds that their large elephant herds will not be threatened by
limited ivory trade.
Zimbabwe says it believes there is a concerted effort by some Western
governments to reimpose a blanket ban on ivory trade at the next
CITES meeting in Kenya in April on grounds that it endangers animals
by encouraging illegal organised poaching.