Zimbabwe ready to sell elephants to ‘anyone who wants wildlife’
- Tourism minister Prisca Mupfumira says country has ‘excess’ of 30,000 of the animals
- African nation has sold pachyderms to China in recent years, and has plans to sell to Angola; Gambia has also expressed interest
Zimbabwe plans to sell elephants to Angola and is prepared to ship wild animals to any other interested countries as the southern African nation seeks to reduce its elephant population due to growing conflict between people and wildlife.
“We have no predetermined market for elephant sales, we are open to everyone who wants our wildlife,” tourism minister Prisca Mupfumira said in an interview on the sidelines of a wildlife summit in Victoria Falls.
“The main problem is landmines in Angola, so we are trying to assist them by having a fund to deal with those before we send the animals.”
Millions of landmines were used in Angola’s 27-year civil war that ended in 2002 and many have yet to be cleared.
Leaders of the four southern African nations that are home to more than half of the world’s African elephants gathered in Zimbabwe on Tuesday to discuss a common management policy and reiterate calls on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) to relax some of its rules, including a moratorium on ivory sales.
The four countries – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana – joined forces earlier this year to lobby Cites ahead of a global conference scheduled for August.