Zimbabwe keen to sell thousands of elephants

Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Authority is looking for private buyers for thousands of elephants because its game reserves are overcrowded.

Notices inviting tenders for the purchase of elephants were published in the government controlled daily, The Herald, on Tuesday.

State radio said the elephants are not for export but for wildlife farming by local farmers. It said they would be taken from areas where there were "excessive concentrations".

A parks official said it aimed to encourage the black recipients of 5 000 former white-owned farms "to venture into wildlife production".

He said game sanctuaries, that cover a fifth of the country, could only carry 45 000 elephants without environmental damage, but currently had 80 000 to 100 000.

Would-be buyers will have to pay ZIM$1-million (about R1 000) just for a tender form, and must prove they have sufficient land. The average size of larger commercial units allocated to landless blacks is 250 hectares but experts say each elephant needs a grazing and browsing range of approximately 1,7km².

Prospective owners also have to prove they are able to move the two-to-five-ton pachyderms safely to their new homes - a process involving the hire of specialist veterinary surgeons, drug darting teams and large teams of labourers, as well as low-loading trucks and special crates.

The advertisements gave no guidelines for prices but at the last auction for trophy elephants, bulls fetched ZIM$140-million to Z$155-million each.

The closing date for tenders is May 27. The total number of elephants to be auctioned was not disclosed.

After years of controversy, Zimbabwe, in 1999, obtained permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to sell limited and strictly monitored supplies of ivory to Japan.

It has so far held back from culling its annual 500-elephant quota, in deference to vocal international animal welfare lobbyists. Kenya led opposition to any resumed trade in elephant products, saying this encouraged smuggling by poaching syndicates.

Source: www.iol.co.za