A call to embrace adaptive management for effective elephant conservation in Zimbabwe

Wildlife conservation is at a critical juncture across Africa, hamstrung by bureaucratic incompetence and the erosion of ethical principles, while wildlife populations are predominantly threatened by habitat fragmentation and indiscriminate killings. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) was once quintessential in Africa, among pioneers of the wildlife management front, inter alia, with effective protected area management, even authorising wildlife conservancies outside protected areas. ZimParks is expected to generate its own income from both non-consumptive and consumptive activities, such as ecotourism and sport hunting. However, a perennially lean budget, use of obsolete equipment, low morale among the staff, and a high staff turnover because of a low skills retention capacity constrain the activities of the department. Although ZimParks patrol teams are augmented by state police in major protected areas, rangers are sometimes injured or killed during contact with armed poachers with sophisticated weapons. The situation is continually made more dire by fraudulent tendencies, where ZimParks officers, state police and politicians are incessantly implicated as accomplices in wildlife poaching syndicates. On the other hand, the techniques used by poachers are dynamic, with recent elephant Loxodonta africana poaching tactics involving lacing water sources and salt licks with cyanide poison, which also kills secondary targets such as scavenging vulture species.