In one of several initiatives under a project backed by the UN and government, elephants, warthogs, giraffes, buffaloes and impala — a type of antelope — are kept in an area measuring about 7 000 square kilometres and sold to trophy hunters licensed by the government in co-operation with the district authorities, while the community gets free meat from the slain animals.
“The project is now well-established and the beneficiaries are building a school and a clinic from the money they receive from the sale of the animals,” said Leonard Unganai, who manages the project run jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the government-controlled Environment Management Agency (EMA). “They have also bought a truck and set up a grain-grinding mill to benefit the community.”
He said the project, which helps communities cope with drought and climate change, would be replicated in other parts of the country because 90% of Zimbabwean farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture and are struggling to become food secure.
Using revenue from community-based trophy-hunting initiatives to generate income for sustainable development activities is not unusual. In the late 1990s, Pakistan pioneered development of the Community-Based Trophy-Hunting Programme (CBTHP), according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Pakistan runs several such projects, some in collaboration with UN and nature conservation agencies.
Finding sources of income to build the resilience of poor rural communities to erratic rainfall in Zimbabwe’s troubled economy is a tall order.
“Chiredzi district, which has always been vulnerable to drought, is one of the many areas countrywide that have been affected by climate change.
Households have been severely affected by rainfall distribution, resulting in poor harvests,” said UNDP-EMA’s Unganai.
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Susan Chivambu agreed. “There were hardly any rains to talk about in the last agricultural season and my family only managed to produce a few bags of maize. Very soon that will be gone and we will have to scrounge for food, just like we have done in the last three years.”
Her family has been forced to sell some of their livestock every year. “Even though we have a garden, we cannot sell the vegetables because there is no one to buy,” she said. Two goats she would be taking to the market for the fortnightly sale were tethered to a nearby tree.
“Adaptation to climate change is a fairly new phenomenon in Zimbabwe,” said Unganai. “There is a need for policies and strategies that empower affected local communities.”
Tapping into another lucrative market, 300 households in Chilonga village in Chiredzi district have set up a cooperative crocodile farming project, now in its second year and close to becoming profitable. Each member contributes to the food and upkeep of the crocodiles. — IRIN
