Poaching Threatens Zimbabwe's Rhino Populations

Poaching to satisfy an insatiable demand in China and Vietnam for traditional medicine made from powdered rhinoceros horn threatens to decimate Zimbabwe's rhino population. Despite internationally supported conservation efforts, in the three-year-period from 2007 to 2009, poachers killed a total of 236 rhinos in Zimbabwe to feed the international trade. The rhino population in Zimbabwe at the end of 2009 was estimated at 726, down from 825 in 2007.

Zimbabwe's rhino population, and other wild life, face a number of serious threats; forced economic partnerships with conservancies that threaten their viability, land invasions, and efforts to exploit mineral deposits in wildlife conservation areas. Poaching, however, is probably the most serious.

While Zimbabwe's minister of environment Frances Nhema insists that the government is taking the threat seriously and trying to preserve the species, nongovernmental organizations involved in conservation say that there is little evidence to support his claim. Nhema said that lack of resources hampers the government's ability to do a more effective job. "Saving one rhino," he said recently. "Costs several thousand dollars, and it is hard to find all the money that is needed."

Nhema agreed that poaching is a big problem. He pointed out that in late February, a rhinoceros that was in a conservancy in Harare fell victim to poachers. "Poachers," he said. "Are increasingly daring and well armed. It also does no good to arrest the poachers, because they will just be replaced as long as there is a ready market for rhino horns in Asia."

Verity Bowman, director of Marwell Zimbabwe Trust (MZT) and John Mvula, senior ranger at Matobo National Park in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South Province, agree at least with Nhema's characterization of poachers. In 2007, Matobo had a population of 64 rhinos, but poachers killed 5 in 2008, 5 in 2009, and so far have killed one in 2010, according to Bowman. Mvula said that poachers are very ingenious and are constantly changing their tactics to avoid ranger patrols. They are also well-armed, he said, and are even more of a threat to his rangers than other wildlife.

In Matobo, rangers in groups of four to six, patrol the several thousand acres for 14-day stints and 10 days of rest as a rule. Lack of personnel, however, means that often they get much less than 10 days off, Mvula said. The park staff, supported by a grant from the U.S. Government, use GPS devices to keep track of the remaining population of rhinos who are fitted with transmitting devices.

With a population of less than 800 rhinos in the entire country, unless something is done about poaching, in a few years there will be none left. After all the rhinos in Zimbabwe are gone, one conservationist mused, which country will be next?