WASHINGTON (AP) — Political and military elites are
seizing protected areas in one of Africa’s last bastions for elephants,
putting broad swaths of Zimbabwe at risk of becoming fronts for ivory
poaching, according to a nonprofit research group’s report that examines
government collusion in wildlife trafficking.
Zimbabwe has
maintained robust elephant populations compared with other countries on
the continent. But economic penalties imposed by the United States and
Europe have led Zimbabweans with ties to President Robert Mugabe’s
ruling party to find new methods of making money. The report, set for
release Monday, says they may be turning to elephants’ highly valued
ivory tusks.
Zimbabwe’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Born
Free USA, an animal advocacy group, commissioned the report from
Washington-based C4ADS to better understand the role organized crime and
corrupt government officials play in ivory trafficking across Africa,
said Adam Roberts, Born Free USA’s chief executive officer.
Wildlife
trafficking long has been viewed as a conservation issue, but it has
exploded into an illicit global economy monopolized by mafia-like
syndicates and enabled by high-level bureaucrats and powerful business
interests. The report describes a toxic combination of conflict, crime
and failures of governance throughout Africa that threatens to wipe out
the continent’s dwindling elephant herds.
China, the world’s
largest market for ivory, is compounding the threat, the report said.
Chinese companies have won lucrative contracts in Zimbabwe for mining
and construction projects near remote elephant habitats, bringing waves
of workers and new roads that can be exploited by East Asian crime
organizations, the report said.
North of Zimbabwe, in central
Africa, an estimated 23,000 elephants, or roughly 60 each day, were
killed last year. A pound of elephant tusk sells for about $1,500 on the
black market. That’s more than double the price just five years ago.
Ivory is used to make carved ornaments and trinkets.
Rhinoceroses also are heavily poached for their horns, which some Asian cultures believe contain
medicinal properties.
TRAFFIC,
a global wildlife trade monitoring network, says there are between
47,000 and 93,000 elephants in Zimbabwe. The gap is due to the fact that
full-fledged surveys of the animals have not been carried out since
2007, said Richard Thomas, the organization’s spokesman.
Across Africa, there are close to 500,000 elephants, a fraction of the nearly 10 million that roamed
there just 100 years ago.
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this month signaled its worries about
the future of Zimbabwe’s herds in a decision blocking the importation of
African elephant trophies taken in Zimbabwe during 2014. Noting the
cyanide poisoning of 300 elephants last year in Zimbabwe’s Hwange
National Park, the agency said it has "significant concerns about the
long-term survival of elephants in Zimbabwe."
The ban also applies to Tanzania.
The
Obama administration in February published a national strategy for
combating the multibillion-dollar poaching industry, relying on many of
the same tactics used against terrorist organizations and drug cartels.
The plan outlines a "whole of government approach" that includes working
with other countries to increase the number of investigations and
arrests, using high-tech gear to identify poaching hot spots, and
targeting the bank accounts of wildlife traffickers and the corrupt
bureaucrats who assist them.
"Our findings shine a bright light on
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sudan, and Kenya, where poachers move
across borders with near impunity, slaughter elephants with complete
disregard, and use the ivory to fund violent operations across the
continent," said Born Free USA’s Roberts. "Global leaders cannot stand
by while the human tragedy and poaching crisis continue.
Zimbabwe, the report said, could become a poaching hot spot with little warning.
Mugabe
has led the country since independence from British rule in 1980. In
his early years in power, he expanded public education and health
services, making Zimbabwe a beacon on the continent. But Zimbabwe’s
economy went into meltdown in 2000 after Mugabe ordered the seizure of
thousands of white-owned commercial farms, leading to the collapse of
the agriculturally based economy, once the region’s breadbasket.
More
than a decade ago, the U.S. and the European Union began imposing
sanctions against Mugabe and members of his inner circle for human
rights abuses, public corruption, and vote-rigging. The penalties set
strict business and travel bans. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has blamed the
sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic woes.
Among the areas in
jeopardy is Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy, a 1,000-square-mile
collection of unfenced wildlife reserves that is home to most of the
country’s elephants and rhinoceroses. Land reform policies have allowed
politically connected people to receive hunting permits and land leases
in the conservancy, according to C4ADS.
"Many have histories of
exploitative business practices, muscling into firms, stripping them of
all value, and moving on, which creates a high risk of systematic
poaching on seized lands," the report said.
The lack of
transparency into the inner workings of Mugabe’s government makes it
difficult to establish direct links between government loyalists and
their interests in wildlife areas. The report said ownership is often
masked through associates, family members, and shell companies.
Using
data-mining software developed by Palantir, a technology company in
California, C4ADS named 18 people involved in what the report describes
as the "political/military takeover of Save Valley Conservancy."
They
include Maj. Gen. Engelbert Rugeje, the inspector general of Zimbabwe’s
defense forces. Rugeje is not on the sanctions list maintained by the
U.S. Treasury Department. He did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe has long been aware of concerns over Rugeje.
In
the fall of 2009, he was accused of threatening to shoot a Zimbabwean
lawmaker who had criticized the general for using soldiers to intimidate
voters, according to an embassy cable published by the Wikileaks
website. Rugeje previously was reported to the embassy for orchestrating
violence in parts of Zimbabwe where candidates who ran against Mugabe’s
ZANU-PF party were elected to parliament.
A government official
reported to be involved in the distribution of wildlife areas to Mugabe
loyalists disputed the allegations.
"If I repeat a lie 20 times, does that make it factual?" Francis Nhema told The Associated
Press last week.
Nhema
leads the ministry tasked by Mugabe with putting in place a program to
take over 51 percent control of remaining foreign and white-owned
businesses and assets. He formerly ran the environment ministry. He has
been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2003.
Embassy officials in
Harare privately voiced misgivings about Nhema following a 2010 meeting
he had with Charles Ray, then the U.S. ambassador. Nhema denied that
high-ranking Zimbabwean officials were involved in poaching activities
and he rejected reports that land within the Save Valley was being
commandeered for personal gain.
"He is soft-spoken and comes
across as reasonable," reads a February 2010 cable, marked confidential.
"He is, however, at least somewhat disingenuous. … In short, he toes
the ZANU-PF line."
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Associated Press writer Tendai Musiya in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
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