By Farayi Machamire
Environment minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri says countries that control and manipulate lives of animals in zoos should not be allowed to decide the fate of those that have a wildlife heritage.
An angry Muchinguri-Kashiri was speaking in the aftermath of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Cites in South Africa where Zimbabwe had hoped to be allowed to sell its ivory stockpiles to raise badly-needed funds for conservation.
The global conference that governs wildlife trade, however, voted overwhelmingly in two secret ballots against the proposal.
The former minister of Women Affairs did not hide her frustration over what she viewed as a “punishment” for the country’s “good conservation deeds”.
She, however, insisted the country will not go against the ban.
“…Some of these countries have destroyed their wildlife, they only have zoos, we are one of the few countries remaining with a wildlife heritage,” she said.
“So we are saying people who want to criticise us and impose these bans, they should plough into our conservation programmes and not leaving us to suffer, but we thank the governments that have been working with us and hope that relationship continues.”
Muchinguri-Kashiri said that voting countries should be considerate of countries with healthy stockpiles.
Muchinguri-Kashiri said the country while sitting on stockpiles of ivory worth billions is struggling to raise money to protect wildlife.
She saluted Kenya for setting ablaze more than 100 tonnes of ivory, the largest ever such fire, in an attempt to shake the world into protecting endangered elephants.
But she claimed “outsiders were calling the shots in so far as wildlife conservation was concerned in the east African country. Kenya is one of about 30 African countries who wanted to see the international trade in ivory tightened.
“We respect the view of Kenya to burn their ivory, it’s their choice but they should not bring it to southern Africa…we are not an extension of Kenya…I know Kenya’s wildlife organs are controlled by NGOs but rural communities are the ones that are suffering, it’s not politics.”
“…Each country has their sovereign rights and people make choices but what we don’t appreciate is those same countries trying to impose their choices on us because we have done so well,” she said.
Muchinguri-Kashiri said trade bans were futile and have in the past not prevented a species from extinction. Daily News
