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Buitron, D., 1989. Chizarira: the black rhino's last Eden. Swara 12 (2): 25-27, figs. 1-4

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Location: Africa - Southern Africa - Zimbabwe
Subject: Distribution - Poaching
Species: African Rhino Species


Original text on this topic:
Even so, the job of interdicting the Zambian-based poachers is proving to be a hard one, especially as long as the Zambian government continues to refuse to take serious action to help stop it. Most of the country along the Zambezi is very dense bushland, difficult of access at the best of times. During the rains, trying to intercept poachers becomes almost a matter of luck. The Zambezi Valley east of Kariba consists of 12,000 km? of such terrain with a river frontage of 230 kilometres, and this is the region which until now has been the main focus of poaching incursions. Most of this area falls within the boundaries of Mana Pools National Park and the Chewore, Sapi, Hurungwe and Charara Safari Areas, and may still contain Africa's last large, viable, and continguous black rhino population.
As poaching in the area intensified in 1985, Zimbabwe responded with an all-out anti-poaching campaign called Operation Stronghold, and help from overseas began to arrive via the American based SAVE (Foundation to Save African Endangered Wildlife) and the World Wildlife Fund. Zimbabwe also began the Rhino Survival Campaign with the objective, similar to that of Kenya's Rhino Rescue programme, of translocating rhinos from the more exposed areas of the lower Zambezi to national parks and private ranches well removed from danger.
It is not certain exactly how many rhinos are now left in the Zambezi Valley. A 1987 estimate of 1,760 rhinos in the whole of Zimbabwe took into account the 300 already known to have been lost to Zambian poachers. By March 1988 a total of 403 rhinos were known to have been killed, while 37 Zambian poachers had been shot dead and another 30 captured. As this miniwar carried on, the poachers were reported to have begun using muti, a traditional herb medicine which will supposedly make them immune to bullets. If true, this serves to point out that the men who actually do the killing are victims themselves, mere pawns in a big-money game run by ruthless organisers who are somehow able to keep them supplied with plenty of automatic weapons and ammunition on the Zambian side.
It was encouraging to learn that the more seriously Zimbabwe has taken the anti-poaching effort, the more forthcoming has been assistance from abroad. The World Wildlife Fund is now financing the full-time deployment of a helicopter to assist in Operation Stronghold, which overall is costing US$ 250,000 a year. The helicopter is mainly used for resupplying rangers in the field, and to position stopgroups to intercept intruders from Zambia once their presence is known. WWF is also currently employing a team led by David Cummings, former director of Zimbabwe's national parks, to monitor the situation in the lower Zambezi with a view to determining just what's left, and how effective Operation Stronghold has been.
Over US$ 350,000 has now been contributed by SAVE in the form of equipment, including two light aircraft being used for surveillance, and a truck and trailer capable of carrying six rhinos at a time for the translocation programme. As of March, 233 rhinos had been moved out of the Zambezi Valley, and of these ten have been sent to zoos in America, and two to the Frankfurt Zoological Society to help in captive-breeding experiments using artificial insemination. The hope is that one day the progeny of these translocated rhinos will be safely reintroduced to their former homelands.
On a more ominous note, I learned that in the last few months there seems to have begun a westward shift in the activities of the poachers, perhaps calculated to force Zimbabwe to spread its anti-poaching efforts more thinly. The most recent rhino poaching incidents have been in the Chete Safari Area below Chizarira, and in several parks and reserves in the north-west of the country near Victoria Falls.

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