As the country battles to contain the upsurge of poaching activities, DELTA Beverages has stepped in to lend a hand to one of the organisations directly involved in wildlife conservation.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange – listed entity donated US$20 000 to the Community Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) for doing commendable work to protect wildlife.
The country’s wildlife remains under threat from poachers who have become daring.
More than 800 people have been arrested in cases related to poaching.
And recently a poacher resisting arrest gunned down police officers.
DELTA, which was founded in 1895, this year celebrated 120 years of existence.
CAMPFIRE covers 50 000 square kilometres and benefits more than 777 000 households who receive 55 percent of the CAMPFIRE income while the other percentage is used for field patrols, monitoring hunts and district development among other activities.
It is one of the first programmes to consider wildlife as renewable natural resources, while addressing the allocation of its ownership to indigenous peoples in and around protected conservation areas.
Munyaradzi Nyandoro, DELTA general manager, said they were happy to be part of efforts to conserve the country’s heritage and wildlife.
“We are proud to be part of Zimbabwe’s heritage and brands are part of this country’s heritage. And we know that brands do not grow on trees but it is people and societies that make brands grow,” Nyandoro said.
“We all know that at some point tourism was a major foreign currency earner and it is new money coming so conserving animals must be part of it. This is why we have raised money as our small contribution to the work being done by CAMPFIRE because we are just not giving to CAMPFIRE but to this country’s communities and tourism.”
CAMPFIRE’s Charles Jonga said the DELTA contribution will come in handy in advancing the goals of the organisation.
“It has not been easy for the communities to compete with wildlife for space, water and food. The little food that the communities have grown has literally been destroyed by the wildlife as it moves around hence the creation of the long-term interests in wildlife,” Jonga said.
“Wildlife is a global resource and a lot depends on how the world perceives it. The assistance by DELTA will help put together good quality data processing and communication systems that will bring solutions to internationally sponsored wildlife poaching.”
According to wikipedia: “During 1989–2001, CAMPFIRE generated over US$20 million of transfers to the participating communities, 89 percent of which came from sport hunting. The scale of benefits varied greatly across districts, wards and households. Twelve of the 37 districts with authority to market wildlife produced 97 percent of all CAMPFIRE revenues, reflecting the variability in wildlife resources and local institutional arrangements.
“The programme has been widely emulated in southern and eastern Africa. It has been estimated by the World Wildlife Fund that households participating in CAMPFIRE increased their incomes by 15-25 percent.  Between 1989 and 2006 the project generated US$30 million, of which approximately 52 percent was distributed to local communities to promote rural development projects. No location has benefited more substantially than the Masoka Ward, which has used its revenue to improve the livelihoods of its rural residents by building a four-block primary school, a two-ward clinic, a grinding mill and two hand-pumped boreholes, to name but a few.
“In addition, environmental benefits have been witnessed since CAMPFIRE’s inception; elephant numbers have increased, buffalo numbers are either stable or witnessing a slight decrease and habitat loss has diminished, and in certain regions, even reversed.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri, said an inter-ministerial committee had been set up to deal with the issue of poaching.
‘We have set up an inter-ministerial committee involving the rural district councils, the local government, lands, agriculture and transport, among others, so that we can address the issue of poaching. The involvement of the securities sector will also assist in handling the matter,” Muchinguri-Kashiri said.
“We have realised that there is a lot of conflicts between communities and wildlife resulting in loss of property and life while the conflicts between the rangers and communities and that between the National Parks and Rural District Councils has also added to the conflict. The withdrawal of hunting quotas and sharing of sport hunting proceeds have exacerbated the problem.”
More than 35 animals recently died after consuming poisonous substances in Kariba while many more have died from deliberate poisoning and poaching activities.