Harare - Authorities in Zimbabwe, where the rhinoceros
population is under threat from poachers, have launched a massive
dehorning exercise, reports said Thursday.
The horns of both black and white rhinos are coveted by poachers
who can sell them to dealers for use as dagger handles in the Middle
East and for traditional medicine in Asia.
'We want poachers to know that if they kill any rhino in Zimbabwe,
they will not find any horns,' Henry Madzikanda, the chief ecologist
in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management told the
state-controlled Herald newspaper.
A team of experts from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and
Zimbabwe's Parks Department are to carry out the exercise on more
than 780 rhinos, starting in southeastern Zimbabwe, Madzikanda said.
Earlier this month, official reports said at least 40 black rhinos
had been killed for their horns in state wildlife parks and private
conservancies over the past three years.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a huge increase in poaching following
the launch of a controversial land reform programme seven years ago
that saw the forcible takeover of white-owned farms, many of which
had private game sanctuaries on them.
The parcelling out of land in some wildlife reserves and ranches
to peasant farmers by district land committees is ongoing.
But Madzikanda told the Herald the country's rhino population was
safe. We are keeping them all in highly secured places for our future
generations, he said.
An unprecedented economic crisis in the country that has seen
inflation spiralling to a national record of more than 3,714 percent
and worsening poverty has also caused an increase in poaching by
people struggling to survive.
Zimbabwe's black rhino population came close to extinction in the
1980s at the hands of poachers from neighbouring Zambia.
In the 1990s, many of the animals were moved from the Zambezi
Valley to game reserves on private land inside the country to avoid
Zambian poachers guns, but now they have fallen prey to locals.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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