ZIMBABWE Parks and Wildlife Management — a custodian of national parks that cover 13% of Zimbabwean land — has entered into partnership with an Italian businessman to build a 24-bed lodge at Vine Campsite in Mana Pools Game Park in a bid to raise money for conservation purposes, a Parks official has said.
Report by Everson Mushava
The construction of the lodge on a semi-permanent tent/thatched roof under thatched roof structures followed the signing of a five-year lease agreement last year on 50-50 partnership with ACIS Investments, a company owned by an Italian businessman.
This is despite an outcry by a wildlife conservation company, Zambezi Society who felt the construction of the lodge was done without adopting all recommendations drawn from an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out on the site by a private assessor, Vibes Consultancy Services.
The Zambezi Society argued that construction of the lodge would threaten wildlife in the Unesco-listed World Heritage Site due to its natural forest with abundant wildlife. When NewsDay visited Vine Camp, construction of the lodge, expected to be through by next April, was in progress in the thick woodland area along the Zambezi River. A Parks board member, Jerry Gotora, said the project would not affect the 2 196km² wildlife area insisting the authority was determined to maintain the park’s natural state.
“We would like to keep the park as pristine as is possible, but you require money to keep it in a pristine condition. As you can see, they (workers constructing the Vine Camp site) totally avoided cutting down any bush, grass or tree,” said Gotora.
“The structures are semi-permanent and can be removed without trace if we decide not to renew the lease after the five years.” The accommodation consists of 12 two-bedded chalet tents, each 90,5m² in size, on a wooden platform under thatch with a restaurant and a bar. Gotora said Parks was not being funded by Treasury it should find ways to raise money through such partnerships. The money, Gotora said, would be used for conservation purposes so that the wildlife sanctuary would be kept intact for future generations.
He said it was surprising that the people who mad a lot of noise had never come up with financial assistance to be used by Parks for conservation purposes in the Mana Pools which is now maintained by revenue from Lake Chivero.
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“The world that wants to enjoy this so-called World Heritage Site is being unfair to Zimbabweans. That is the same world that is telling us not to sell our ivory and denying us the right to make money out of our God-given natural resource. We are trying to create money out of a God-given natural resource without destroying it. Zambia is now making money out of our conservation efforts. We need these lodges, I can’t charge you $100 to come and sleep in your own tent under a tree,” he added.
According to Parks spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo, it costs only $5 to enter into Mana Pools for locals while foreigners are charged a mere $30. She said Zimbabwe was sitting on 50 000 tonnes worth $12,5 million of ivory due to a Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species ivory nine-year trade moratorium on the sale of ivory which ends in 2018. Zimbabwe is now forced to look after 120 000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 40 000.
“The money realised out of these partnerships will be used to pay workers and maintain the game parks,” Washaya-Moyo said. Parks has over 20 000 workers, most of them living in tsetse fly and mosquito infested areas. Parks regional manager, Tawanda Gotosa, said the area was underutilsed and Parks would welcome more investors as a way of raising additional income.
Parks recently courted controversy when it offered exploration licence to a company for the exploration of mineral sands in the Chiwore and Rukomechi rivers, with environmentalist objecting to mining in a World Heritage Site, although the rivers are several kilometres from the area. Critics said this would cause a severe deterioration of the natural beauty of the area thorough the use of chemicals that were not bio-friendly.
“No mining is taking place as you can see, but we would welcome such investments provided a careful EIA is carried out. After all, there is need to desilt these rivers so that animals can have access to water. Some animals have to travel over 70km to sources of water because these rivers are heavily silted,” Gotora said.
Gotora added that conservation used to be funded by world organisations such as International Monetary Fund, World Bank and others, but they stopped as soon as it was commercialised, a move that saw it in dire financial constraints.
