ZIMBABWE: Poacher Arrests In Zimbabwe's Save Valley

Key rhino populations
In rhino-speak, a “Key 1 population” is the category given by the IUCN’s African Rhino Specialist Group to rhino populations with continental importance. The categorisation system is based on the size of the population, its genetic diversity and potential to grow, performance trends and its ability to withstand threats such as poaching and habitat loss.

Both populations monitored and managed by Zimbabwe’s Lowveld Rhino Trust fall into the Key 1 category, and funding LRT’s work is a priority for Save the Rhino International’s efforts in London. The Lowveld region covers some 1.3 million acres and is home to both black and white rhino. Growing these populations, and the one in nearby Malilangwe, is the best chance for the survival of the species within Zimbabwe. Bubye Valley Conservancy is in the west of the country, with the Save Valley Conservancy closer to the porous borders with South Africa and Mozambique; known escape routes for rhino horn poachers and horn traffickers who are increasingly moving beyond their recent focus on South Africa.

Zimparks’ crackdown
The recent arrests were made by Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority anti-poaching unit in separate operations across the country, and included two suspects who already featured on the police’s wanted list. One named individual, Matandira Gomeso, had been on the run since 2011 when he absconded after an arrest for suspected poaching and being in possession of elephant tusks. In total, 10 individuals were apprehended, four of them in Save Valley Conservancy.

Zimbabwe’s legal system has a good legislative framework for the protection of wildlife – including theoretically tough sentencing. Whilst the recent spate of arrests is good news, the country is in the grip of an escalating poaching crisis and, in practice, bribery is common with many high-profile cases failing to go to trial.

Rhinos offer more than their market value to a community – they are part and parcel of sustaining a local habitat, playing a vital role in the whole community’s resilience to climate change, drought, over-farming and soil erosion. Rhino populations also help secure long-term economic growth through opportunities for tourism, stimulating local job creation.

Zimparks’ crackdown
The recent arrests were made by Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority anti-poaching unit in separate operations across the country, and included two suspects who already featured on the police’s wanted list. One named individual, Matandira Gomeso, had been on the run since 2011 when he absconded after an arrest for suspected poaching and being in possession of elephant tusks. In total, 10 individuals were apprehended, four of them in Save Valley Conservancy.

Zimbabwe’s legal system has a good legislative framework for the protection of wildlife – including theoretically tough sentencing. Whilst the recent spate of arrests is good news, the country is in the grip of an escalating poaching crisis and, in practice, bribery is common with many high-profile cases failing to go to trial.

Rhinos offer more than their market value to a community – they are part and parcel of sustaining a local habitat, playing a vital role in the whole community’s resilience to climate change, drought, over-farming and soil erosion. Rhino populations also help secure long-term economic growth through opportunities for tourism, stimulating local job creation.

Escalating crisis
Sustained rhino poaching means there is a very real chance that people living alongside rhinos in Save and Bubye are robbed of this shared future. In 2014, 20 rhino were poached in Zimbabwe. In 2015, this had more than doubled to 51. Poachers arrested on the ground can be local petty criminals, or gangs from across the border. They are unlikely to see much profit – that goes to the kingpins further up the chain and investigative journalists have found signs that this chain extends upwards to Zimbabwe’s shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation, generally understood to act as Mugabe’s secret police force. This begs the question: are rogue agents profiting for poaching, or has poaching become institutionalised in Zimbabwe’s political elite?

Rogue agent or state sanctioned?
In Julian Rademeyer’s eviscerating analysis of the transnational criminal networks involved in the horn trade, Tipping Point, identifies Central Intelligence Organisation operative Munashe Mugwira as a supplier of weapons to local poachers operating within Zimbabwe. The ever-ubiquitous AK-47, plus silencers, are their weapon of choice, allegedly transported in his official vehicle. Mugwira is facing trial, but suspected accomplices – such as Dumisani Moyo, in hiding from Interpol, remain at large.

A poacher of particular interest is a Mr Moses Moses. Found with three other poachers in Chishakwa, and in the possession of rifles, silencers and ammunition, it emerged that Moses is the nephew of prominent Muzarabani North MP, Alfred Mufunga, who is also the owner of their getaway car. His uncle has denied all involvement. According to Rademeyer’s sources, Central Intelligence Organisation agents threaten to arrest poachers if they don't supply their agents with rhino horn.

One high-profile head has already rolled. Depicted by the Zimbabwean authorities as internal clean-up operation, National Park Director-General Edson Chidziya was suspended. Recently, the authorities have admitted that 56 rhino horns are missing from the nation’s stockpiles, and a Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority spokesperson claims Chidzaya attempted a cover-up.

There is just over a month until CITES holds its Conference of the Parties 2017 (CoP17) and formally lobbies for the international rhino horn trade ban to be lifted. Back at the Lowveld Rhino Trust, news of the arrests brings – however temporary – a moment of relief.

ZIMBABWE: Pangolin Trade Capital

Despite the arrests and long-term sentences passed on several Zimbabwean pangolin capturers, dealers and traffickers over the past year, conservationists believe the increased seizure of live pangolins, pangolin scales, skins and other products indicate an upsurge in poaching of the world’s most widely trafficked animal.

According to quarterly crime incidence statistics for the period January to April 2016 released by the Tikki Hywood Trust in May, pangolin poaching crimes are still rampant in Zimbabwe, “This year alone, Zimbabwe has handled 20 criminal cases involving pangolin poachers and 41 accused persons countrywide. Of those, 16 have already received the mandatory 9-year sentence and 4 have been acquitted. Two warrants of arrest issued (in the same period),” the trust said.

An analysis of recent arrest trends and court cases shows that most of the poaching cases recorded in the period 2015-2016 originated around game reserves in the Mashonaland, Midlands and Matabeleland North provinces. However, the capital Harare remains the pangolin trade capital where live pangolin and product buyers and trafficking kingpins with external links to the South-East Asian and Middle Eastern markets allegedly operate from.

In Zimbabwe, one only needs to read the newspapers to see that despite the laudable law enforcement successes of the past year, there remains a crisis when it comes to the illegal capture, trade and trafficking in pangolin products.

While noting the high prevalence of pangolin poaching, the trust has praised the efforts of the law enforcement agencies and the long duration jail sentences handed down by the judiciary as active deterrents to the scourge. According to prosecution analysis figures released by the trust on April 22 this year, 84 people were arrested for crimes linked to illegal dealing in live pangolins and pangolin products in 2015.

In a statement circulated on World Pangolin Day in February, the Tikki Hywood Trust expressed concern that despite tough laws against illegal exploitation, Zimbabwe’s pangolins are still being poached to satisfy the foreign market:

“The pangolin is on the Zimbabwean list of specially protected endangered species. There is very strict legislation around the trafficking of any animal on the list and poachers can expect a minimum of 9 years in jail. The pangolin is of important cultural significance in Zimbabwe. The fact that they are being poached at such a high rate of late is frightening. What is most disturbing is that our natural heritage is being killed to satisfy a foreign market,” the trust said.

In its 2015 poaching crimes report, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (PWMA) said it handled 22 cases of illegal possession of pangolins.

However, Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF) chairperson Johnny Rodrigues told CAT that while the arrest and long-term conviction of poachers is encouraging, the problem would continue if the crackdown excluded the Harare-based syndicates, which are seen as the drivers and enablers of the trade.

“The arrests and sentences are good, but should we take a close look at who is getting arrested and ask ourselves about the value of the targets we are incarcerating. From recent cases I have observed, its just the small boys – the runners and the couriers – who are getting jailed. The leaders and financiers of the syndicates roam free because the law is not building on information gathered from the runners to get to the syndicates and financiers of the trade.

“Several Chinese, and in one case, a Malian citizen, have been arrested while trying to smuggle ivory and live pangolins through the Harare International Airport in the past few years. While the crackdown on these low-level links of the trafficking chain is a positive development, it won’t help unless it goes after the syndicates which finance and which sustain the demand for the animals,” Rodrigues said.

The Tikki Hywood Trust and international wildlife conservation organisation TRAFFIC recently held a workshop to train aviation
staff and security officers from the Harare International Airport on advanced cargo inspection techniques to detect and prevent the smuggling of live pangolins and pangolin products by air.

The fight to save the eight species of endangered pangolin received a boost in April when the United States announced plans to join Nigeria, Senegal, Vietnam, India and the Phillipines in co-sponsoring a proposal asking the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to upgrade the protection all species of pangolin to Appendix 1.

The proposal is set to be presented at the 17th edition of the CITES Convention of Parties (COP 17) meeting to be held in Johannesburg from September 24 to October 5 this year. All four African pangolin species – namely the Black-bellied pangolin (Manis Tetradactyla), white-bellied pangolin (Manis Tricuspis), giant pangolin (Manis Gigantea) and ground pangolin (Manis Temminckii) will be covered by the proposal.