While we hear news of most of the world's perishing wildlife, Zimbabwe is willing to sell a part of its wildlife to other nations.?
Zimbabwe is an active process of selling its wild elephants in an attempt to reduce their high population in the country. It is ready to sell its elephants to any country which is ready to take responsibility of the shipping.
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Zimbabwe¡¯s President Emmerson Mnangagwa addressed journalists after the African Union/United Nations Wildlife Summit in Victoria Falls on June 25 and informed that the current elephant population of the country is 84,000 while they have the resources to cater only 50,000 elephants.?
"Some of our brothers north of us have exhausted their wildlife," he was quoted to as saying by CNN. "We are willing to sell, in some cases to donate these wildlife animals."
Mentioning Angola as a potential buyer Mnangagwa said that they country was planning to reintroduce elephant populations where the country¡¯s mines had been cleared.?
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"Angola has a problem because of the war; there are a lot of land mines. A lot of the animals moved south. So we are now cooperating with Angola to raise funds to demine, and we will give Angola lions, elephants, buffaloes so that we decongest our own areas. I think this is a very humane approach to the issue of wildlife,¡± CNN quotes the President as saying.?
In May this year, Zimbabwe sold more than 90 elephants to Dubai and China for $2.7 million(more than Rs 18 crore). The wildlife agency of the country reportedly said that the money from the sales was going to be used to support conservation.?
At the National Wildlife summit the President of Mnangagwa also requested that the global ban on ivory trade be lifted so that his and some other African countries could sell ivory and rhino horn stockpile, which according to him is worth $600 million(approx Rs 4,154 thousand crore). That amount of money would aid Zimbabwe in funding its wildlife conservation measures for 2 decades he said.
Ivory sale is banned under an international agreement on trade in endangered species. But countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia are appealing to lift the ban with support from South Africa.?
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These countries alone house more than 50% of the world¡¯s elephants population and have stockpiles worth millions of dollars which according to them could be sold to further fund conservation.?
Botswana Minister of Environment Kitso Mokaila, in an interview with CNN said, "The whole world right now is trying to close those ivory markets, and the question is, are we sitting on a ticking time bomb? Because when people eventually say 'we are sick and tired of being zookeepers' ... when there is no return in investment and they go randomly out there and massacre them, that is the real problem.¡±
The overpopulation of elephants leads to endangering their and locals¡¯ lives. Many farmers have complained about elephants invading their fields and lands and destroying crops.