Campfire still assessing US wildlife import ban The US wildlife department this year banned the importation of elephant trophies hunted in Tanzania and Zimbabwe

The CAMPFIRE Association is still compiling data to ascertain the effect that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ban on imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies from Zimbabwe had on earnings for communities. The US wildlife department in April this year banned the importation of elephant trophies hunted in Tanzania and Zimbabwe citing questionable management practices, a lack of effective law enforcement and weak governance which it alleged had resulted in uncontrolled poaching and catastrophic population declines of the species.

It said anecdotal evidence, such as the widely publicised poisoning last year of 300 elephants in the Hwange National Park, suggested that Zimbabwe’s elephants were under siege.

Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) Association director Charles Jonga said finding other hunters to buy the hunts that the Americans abandoned following the ban had taken some time.

“Hunts were still going on as recently as the past few weeks,” he said.

Mr Jonga said compilation of the data could be completed by this week.

Sport hunting involves selective hunting of wild game animals with the adult male of a species the most sought after trophy by wealthy foreign hunters.

Every year, hunters from mostly Western countries flock to Africa to kill prized animals such as lions, elephants, hippos, buffaloes for a trophy.

Usually the hunters take the head in the case of lions, tusks for elephants, and skin for display in their homes or offices.

The hunters pay up to $200 000 for an animal, earning the country large amounts of revenue.

Communities under CAMPFIRE use the revenue from sport hunting to build infrastructure such as schools, clinics, roads and bridges. – New Ziana.

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