Zimbabwe will soon sell the right to shoot as many as 500 elephants this year in a bid to assist with conservation.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZIMPARKS) spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo, told CNN Thursday that declining tourism revenue owing to the coronavirus pandemic was among the main reasons for the move. Farawo said:
We eat what we kill. We have a budget of about $25 million for our operations which is raised — partly — through sports hunting, but you know tourism is as good as dead at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We strongly condemn trophy hunting — a practice that agitates wild animals and escalates human-wild life conflicts.
It is almost certain that surviving families of wildlife families that witness the senseless gunning down of their family members mete out vengeance on the hapless local villagers.Contrary to government arguments that trophy hunting is meant to assist with conservation, the practice is motivated by greed and often the money is not even accounted for. There is a need for more innovative and eco-friendly measures to improve revenue generation from photo safaris and tourism in general.
Zimbabwe has often argued that it was failing to conserve the parks hence the need to allow hunters to shoot elephants sell some as their population was fast rising.
Last year, there were plans to introduce birth control measures to address the ballooning elephant population in the country.
More: Pindula News; CNN