The link between a flourishing tourism industry and African wildlife diversity is unquestionable, especially in Zambia. Here our tourism industry is growing fast and is mainly wildlife based. About 80 percent of our tourism activities are linked with our country’s biodiversity within its broad wildlife estates. The industry also contributes significantly to Zambia’s reputation, employment levels and revenue.
Unfortunately, wildlife is under threat by poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. Among other cases the most recent is a report in 2015 that noted poaching as a major threat to the Zambian Kafue Lechwe population which was declining at an alarming rate of 19 percent in 5 years.
The ‘This Is Not A Game’ team interviewed the Ministry of Tourism and Arts Public Relations Officer, Mr Sakabilo Kalembwe, on the topic to get a better understanding on what the Ministry’s mandate is on protecting wildlife and what Zambia would look like if we lost all our wildlife.
What is the ministry’s mandate on protecting wildlife?
The Ministry is working to have Zambia as a tourism destination of choice among the top 5 in Africa by the year 2030. Wildlife plays a particularly important role in the growth of tourism hence the Ministry is going all the way to conserve wildlife.
How has the illegal bushmeat trade affected Zambia’s tourism industry?
Mr Kalembwe: First of all, we need to draw a line between illegal bushmeat and legal game meat. The difference is game meat is always legal and bushmeat is illegal. This problem has persisted because some people look at wildlife as a product meant for the pot, but its time Zambians changed their mindset. The Government, through its 7th National Development Plan, has prioritised the tourism pillar after agriculture in the diversification agenda. This is getting actualised.
What would it look like if our wildlife disappeared?
Mr Kalembwe: It is an unpleasant picture. Africa is the future today and you cannot talk about its beauty without the diverse wildlife. Zambia has unique species, such as the wattled crane, (Zambia has over 50 percent of them), the Shoebill in the Bangweulu flood plains, one of the most amazing bat migrations and the second largest wildebeest migration after the Serengeti.
Mr Kalembwe concluded the interview by sharing that he would ‘shudder’ and ‘drop tears’ if he had to grow up in a generation where wildlife was only seen in books, like the dinosaurs. He greatly emphasised that if we utilise the chance now, we can save our tourism industry – visit national parks, stop the consumption of illegal wildlife products like bushmeat and work together in doing so.
How You can support Tourism in Zambia
Visit National parks; visit Liuwa National Park this year in November to witness the second largest wildebeest migration in Africa and the Kasanka National Park at the beginning of the rainy season to view the straw colourful fruit bat migration and support our tourism industry.
Avoid illegal bushmeat and buy legal gamemeat form the Department of National and wildlife accredited suppliers listed on the This Is Not A Game Website
After a spate of mysterious elephant deaths in Botswana in June, last week Zimbabwe reported that 22 elephants have died in unknown circumstances in a forest in the west of the Country.
The carcasses of both young and adult elephants were found in Pandamasue forest, located between Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls. Local authorities think the cause appears to be a bacterial infection but samples are now being analysed to determine the cause of death.
Zimbabwe National Parks spokesman, Tinashe Farawo, said the elephants were found with their tusks, which rules out poaching. “We can only ascertain the cause of death after the tests. But we have ruled out cyanide poisoning,” he said. “Only elephants were affected. No vultures or any other animals were affected.”
An aerial survey of the greater area surrounding the forest where the carcasses were found has been conducted by The Wild is Life Trust and @Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, with representatives from the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission and Zimparks.
Zimparks officials say that the biggest threat to their elephants is overpopulation. Lower rainfall this year could again leave these animals facing starvation after at least 200 died in 2019 from a lack of water and food. Zimbabwe is home to about 80 000 elephants, around a fifth of Africa’s total. Their numbers have declined sharply in recent years, mostly due to a combination of poaching and droughts.
Update on Botswana Test Results
Not all the test results have come through, but initial blood sample tests mostly indicate that a toxin caused the death. Botswana’s Ministry of Wildlife and Environment Permanent Secretary Oduetse Koboto says that it is not yet clear if the toxin is natural or man-made.
“We have received most of the results. A lot of variables that we suspected had tested negative. We ruled out any virus, no bacteria. Pathogens (are) also negative,” he said. “The only thing that we are waiting for is toxicology. What is evident is that we are now dealing with a poison.” They are waiting on one last batch of test results to come through from the United States before they can reach a conclusion.
Veterinarian Dr. Mbatshi Mazwinduma says a naturally occurring toxin would explain why no more elephants appear to be dying in the region. “In the period leading to June, remember this is a dry period, the amount of water is in low quantities. If it is because of a naturally occurring toxin, they would be in high concentration in the waters and those elephants that drink in particular spots get affected. With the rising waters of the Okavango in the last couple of weeks, the toxins are diluted and then washed out“.
This afternoon’s Bats Without Borders Webinar is about Bats and ecosystem services in South Africa, given by researchers based at University Of Venda (Univen) – Professor Peter Taylor and Dr Valerie Linden and Dr Sina Weier.
To join in their Zoom webinars, you can pre-register by contacting Bats Without Borders on their website – www.batswithoutborders.org. If you have missed any of their previous Webinars then you can catch them again on their website.
Illegal hunting of wildlife has had a lot of negative impacts on wildlife populations. Early this year we grasped that the threat of illegal hunting to human health is real. This is based on the findings from the World Health Organization regarding the close relationship between COVID-19 and illegally trafficked pangolins.
There has been an increased risk of spreading infectious diseases when illegal wildlife products like bushmeat are moved from poacher, to trader to consumer. Some facts that the public might not consider in this illegal process are:
poachers have no way of determining the health of the animals they hunt
poachers process these animals in the bush with no access to sanitary facilities and use unhygienic transportation methods – bushmeat is often concealed in bags of charcoal or maize, for many days, before it reaches the consumer
Dr Jackson, a senior veterinary doctor from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), notes that these factors significantly increase the risk of distributing infections among humans.
Consuming such meat puts us all in harm’s way. Poachers should in turn be treated as a threat to public health. COVID-19 has not been the only Zoonotic disease encountered in Zambia. We have had cases of anthrax in Eastern Province as a result of consuming unauthorized wildlife products, such as hippo meat. Rabies cases have occurred in the Kafue ecosystem due to the use of illegal hunting with domestic dogs in Kafue National Park.
If wildlife is left undisturbed by humans, the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases would greatly reduce. The excessive and unregulated interaction between wildlife and poachers is one of the main ways in which we have opened up a path to introduce zoonotic diseases into our diets, notes Department of National Park and wildlife’s Principal veterinary officer- Dr Ng’Ombwa.
Tomorrow, the 5th September, is International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD). It is recognised worldwide on the first Saturday of September to celebrate these amazing birds and to raise awareness about the vital role that they play in our environment.
Vultures are nature’s garbage collectors. They are perfectly adapted to keep our environment clean. Their exceptionally acidic digestive system allows them to safely digest organic waste and decomposing carcasses infected with bacteria, therefore dissolving and removing bacteria from our environment. If population numbers continue to decline, or our vultures become extinct, then it leaves us with contaminated environments and an unbalanced ecosystem.
Today vultures face a threat in many regions in Africa. Some species are under severely under pressure and face extinction, mainly due to human activities. The IUCN Red List status of African-Eurasian vultures now lists many species as Critically Endangered. This is the highest category of threat and indicates a very high risk of extinction in the wild if conservation management actions cannot be implemented.
Recent satellite telemetry studies have shown that vultures travel across huge areas. Therefore conservation actions can only be effective if implemented across borders, requiring a broad approach and the engagement of all countries in a species range. This has led to an international agreement to develop an action plan to conserve African-Eurasian vultures under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
This Multi-species Action Plan to conserve African-Eurasian vultures (Vulture MsAP) provides comprehensive conservation strategies covering the geographic ranges of 15 migratory Old World vultures. It aims to reverse the decline in population trends, bringing back population numbers to acceptable levels by 2029.
Vulture Species Under Threat
Critically Endangered:
Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) – Africa White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) – Africa & Europe White-headed Vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) – Africa Rüppell’s Vulture (Gyps rueppelli) – Africa & Europe Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus) – Asia Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) – Asia Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) – Asia White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis) – Asia
Endangered:
Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres) – Africa Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) – Europe, Asia & Africa Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) – Africa & Asia
Near Threatened:
Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) – Europe, Asia & Africa Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) Europe, Asia & Africa Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) – Asia
Least Concern:
Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) – Europe, Asia & Africa
And to find out more about how you can help conserve our vultures, and all our other spectacular bird species, then check out Birdwatch Zambia’s Facebook Page
