Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa The beginning of the end for Zimbabwe??

I received this from my PH in Zim this morning. According to him it was sent out to all hunting operators. I don't like the smell of this at all!!

http://www.zimparks.org/index.php/m...ildlife-conservation-and-monitoring-fund

MEASURES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE TO IMPROVE THE ADMINISTRATION OF HUNTING IN THE COUNTRY.



Following the illegal killing of an iconic lion, Cecil, outside the Hwange National Park on Antoinette farm in Gwayi River Conservancy on the 1st of July 2015, it has become necessary that the Government of Zimbabwe further tightens hunting regulations in all areas outside the National Parks Estate.

The Government of Zimbabwe has directed Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies to undertake an industry wide investigation to crack down and weed out any illegal hunting activities. The investigations have since found and arrested another culprit, Headman Sibanda, on allegations of breaching hunting regulations in that he hunted without a quota and permit at his Railway Farm 31 and is also the owner of Nyala Safaris which conducted the hunt. It has since been established that his client is also an American called Jan Casmir Sieski who was in the country in April 2015.Mr Sieski’s registered the following address on the TRAS 2, 4660 Twin Oaks Drive, Murrysville PA, 15668, Pennysyvania. Sibanda is currently assisting Police with investigations.

Contrary to media reports circulating on social network media sites and copied from Mr Johnny Rodrigues’s website alleging that another popular icon lion known as Jericho was killed. Investigations have since established that Jericho is still alive and monitored by the lion research project in Hwange National Park who confirmed sighting Jericho as at 7am on 2 August 2015.

Government, in addition to investigations has put in place the following measures with immediate effect;

Hunting of lions, leopards and elephants in areas outside of Hwange National Park has been suspended .Government is also directing all those currently in the field to stop their hunting activities and withdraw.
Government is very much aware of the financial implications on the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the Safari Industry, CAMPFIRE Communities and Wildlife Producers affected by this suspension and therefore appeals for funding from the donor community and well-wishers to assist Zimbabwe Parks and Management Authority to thoroughly investigate operations of this important hunting industry. Financial resources generated will ensure that Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has sufficient capacity to monitor the activities of this important hunting industry as required by law. Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has set up a specific wildlife conservation and monitoring fund for this purpose and well-wishers can deposit the funds into
Barclays Bank, Mgundumu Safaris Branch Code 2157 Account Number 6614241.

I don't have any info from my PH in Zim at this time, but I've got feelers out. In order to be prudent, I have to be making contingency plans to cancel my buffalo hunt this month.

Not a happy camper right now.

Before any facts are known, nor a proper investigation, the Zimbabwean government releases the name and address of the hunter from April to the media.... complete and utter BS.

Now this man, his family, reputation, and business is going to be targeted, harassed, and threats perpetrated.

Rather sad, and I feel for the good people in Zimbabwe as they face some serious challenges. I've hunted in Zimbabwe, and made some friends in the country, however, going forward Zimbabwe is permanently off my list of destinations...

I'd rather risk a trip to a San Fran bathhouse than I would to be a Doctor on a hunting trip in Zimbabwe.

The government is “directing all those in currently in the field to stop their hunting activities and withdraw,” Zimbabwean Environment Secretary Prince Mupazviriho said in an e-mailed statement today.


Zimbabwe Orders All Hunters to ‘Withdraw’ After Killing of Cecil

They are asking for donations to help them with the wildlife hunting management.
Government is very much aware of the financial implications on the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the Safari Industry, CAMPFIRE Communities and Wildlife Producers affected by this suspension and therefore appeals for funding from the donor community and well-wishers to assist Zimbabwe Parks and Management Authority to thoroughly investigate operations of this important hunting industry.
Well wishers can send money.
Talk about, not letting, a (manufactured) crisis go to waste.

It appers Delta just jumped on the bandwagon and will no longer freight elephant, Lion, leopard, rhino or buffalo.

Joining with SAA I believe?

Things are turning to chit pretty quickly.

And yet none of those c u n ts gave a crap as white farmers were being beaten and murdered. Truly amazing.

Liberals, anti-hunters, and Africans no longer surprise me.

One lion gets poached, they shut down the whole country.....really bright but then again.....it's Africa.

I wouldn't take a free hunt to that country.

Mugabe and his regime of thugs, nothing surprises me, and all our dumbass media/anti hunter/liberals are culpable, in this mess......


maddog

Agree 100%! My friends lost the farm that had been in their family for almost 100 years. Yet they go on trying to scratch out a living from hunting and now this. I question how many more blows below the belt they can take.

Mike

I lived in several African Countries.

Something has to be done. The poaching is absolutely horrendous. Looking back at the decline of animals over the past 50 years it is shocking.

I do have a question.

It is said that nothing under .375 caliber may be used on the big dangerous game.

The media said that Cecil was shot variously with a cross bow and alternately a bow and arrow.

Is bow hunting legal on big game ?

If it is does that make any common sense ?

Email from my PH this morning says this isn't a big deal in Zim outside of the few disputed areas on the margins of the national park. I'm getting the same info from folks in the know at DSC and SCI. The Mugabe govt. can't afford to shut down hunting, it's their only cash crop. But the hunting around the national park was sketchy at best and was going to come under the hammer sooner or later.

In any event, so far I'm looking OK for the Bubye Conservancy at the end of the month.

You will have a grand time, Doc. I am hearing the exact same thing from folks on the ground over there and in the know. Enjoy!

So, how do you plan on getting any trophies home?

Easy. First, Delta ain't the only game in town, and just like Emirates Air and SAA they will eventually rescind the ban on trophies. Second, get yourself a good expediter like Coppersmith or a bunch of others and they will take care of thngs. Lastly, and cheaper, have your trophies shipped by sea. Lots of folks do it.

Cool. Just checking to see how y'all are managing it and managing not to get f'ked by the congenital idiots making these "decisions".

I'm still at a loss as to how/why to support Mugabe in any fashion, but that's a topic for another discussion and likely in person.

If the airlines really wanted to make a point they wouldn't allow anyone to fly with firearms as checked baggage.

It is a very good topic for discussion Sean and one of the few where I can see both sides. Suffice to say I am on the hunting side, even if Mugabe profits for two simple reasons, there are enough former Rhodesians still embedded in the Parks infrastructure who really are responsible in ensuring game survives as a renewable resource and it allows the five thousand or so whites left there a means of income and survival.

Understood on that perspective; still, it's like giving money and ammunition to your enemy, even if it's to a lesser degree.

Doc,

With whom are you hunting with in the Bubye?

Wonder when Delta will not allow anyone that's had an abortion to fly...

This. My taxidermist here in west Texas works with a broker (don't recall the name) used by many many US taxidermists... might be Coppersmith, I don't recall... anyways, they were saying that lately they're using container ships for much of their shipping. Slower than air freight, but cheap and climate-controllable.

John Sharp.

I may have heard of him...

I expect you might have.

Doc,

Sure hope your safari comes off as planned. I've had to cancel two Zim buffalo safaris, one because of severely unsettled conditions after one of Mugabe's "reelections," and one because my flight from Montana left on the morning of 9/11/2001.

good to hear its going through Doc....know you have been looking forward to it for a long while

United and American airlines just banned the shipment of "hunting trophies".

JB, that truly sucks! I had a rough night on Monday after reading some of the "news" about Zimbabwe, I can tell you! However, by Tuesday morning my inquiries had revealed comforting facts.. but I had to face some hard realities the night before.

The facts are: I booked this hunt in January of 2012, after years of wanting to go and months of research into where I wanted to hunt, and with whom. I contacted better than 20 PH's by email to narrow my search options, and I "interviewed" my top 5 candidates at the Dallas Safari Club convention that year before settling on John Sharp and the Bubye Conservancy in Zimbabwe. I paid John in full some time ago. I bought my airline tickets some months ago. I have spent more than a year going through rifles to find the one(s) I will use to hunt African game. I have researched game biology, equipment technical matters, and even the political/historical milieu of soiuthern Africa in detail; all in order to squeeze the greatest possible benefit out of my hunting trip. I have made plans for photography and other records of the trip so that I might write about it afterward, to enhance and prolong the experience in my own mind and life, and to share it with others.

To have done all this, and then to see the very real possibility that it could be wiped away in a heartbeat by a social media firestorm, was gut-wrenching to say the least. And I have no illusions: it may still be taken away, by the same means or by other unforeseen circumstance.

But I have reached a place where I can deal with that, in part thanks to the wisdom of The Redhead. As she pointed out, "You have done everything you can to do this right. If it's taken away by something out of your control, you can still say you've done it right, and let it go." A wise woman, that.

Which is, of course, true of anything I (or anyone else) does in life. So much of what will be or will not be is out of my hands. All I can do is be sure that I do my part as faithfully to the things that I believe in as I can.

So. I'm hopeful that it will all come to pass as I've planned. But like everyone else I'll have to wait and see how it all turns out, no?

Best of luck to you Doc. I remember meeting you at DSC when you had booked that hunt. I'm hopeful for you as well.

Doc,
Fingers crossed for you.

Good Luck Doc. I hope it come off without a hitch. I'd go too if I had already paid for it. 163bc

This incident alone illustrates the power of social media whether fact or fiction.
We all are being whip-sawed by the tweets and posts of a few morons with opposable thumbs and diminutive brains.