Zimbabwe to allow elephant hunting in bid to fundraise for its National Parks

Dorothy Michieka

April 25, 2021 4:20 PM

The right to shoot an elephant will cost between $10,000 and $70,000

Zimbabwe plans to sell hunting rights to kill elephants

Zimbabwe will soon start selling the rights to shoot as many as 500 elephants to help with the funding of its national parks.

The right to shoot an elephant will cost hunters between $10,000 and $70,000 depending on its size. The elephants will be shot in hunting concessions.

In addition to paying for the license to kill the elephant, the tourists will be expected to pay professional hunters to guide them.

The trophies will be treated by taxidermists and exported back to the hunters' home countries.

Zimbabwe plans to sell hunting rights to kill elephants Zimbabwe plans to sell hunting rights to kill elephants Pulse Live Kenya

In an interview, Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said that those who are in opposition of the hunting should instead be giving the parks funds to manage the elephants.

The parks say they are self-funding and with the Covid-19 pandemic stress on tourism, it has been hard to manage the animals.

Zimbabwe has the world’s second-biggest elephant population with over 80,000 elephants.

The country’s parks can only sustain 55,000.

Zimbabwe plans to sell hunting rights to kill elephants Zimbabwe plans to sell hunting rights to kill elephants Pulse Live Kenya

Botswana has the world's largest population of elephants, of around 130,000. After a 5 year ban, Botswana is set to resume trophy hunting.

Another country decrying the excessive number of elephants, is Namibia who in December 2020 put up elephants for sale.

In a case of an elephant in the room, authorities in Zimbabwe mysteriously found 23 dead elephants in Pandamasue forest.

330 elephants were found dead in neighboring Botswana, also having mysteriously died.

However, it is worthy to note that roughly 4 weeks ago, the African Forest elephant was declared critically endangered and the African Savanna elephant was declared endangered.

With an unstable economy based on Agriculture, of which the sector is also unstable with a land reform disaster looming, Zimbabwe’s plans to introduce sport hunting might be justified.

Research courtesy of Bloomberg and CNN

Dorothy Michieka