The country as a whole being aware of the existence of the big five animals that

are, the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo and leopards. These are called the big
five because they are the most difficult animals to hunt on foot1 as termed and
described by the 20th century hunters.2 Conservationists have long recognized the
importance of international cooperation to reduce the hunting down of these
animals and also regulatory laws to protect wild animals from excessive poaching
which then may result in their extinction yet they are the pride of Zimbabwe.
Poaching and trafficking of ivory increasingly rely on international criminal
networks. Thus if these are hunted down and laws regulated, they are most likely
to have a successful conservation of not only the big five but also the protection
of all other wildlife. This essay shall look at the existing environmental laws
relating to wild life and assessing if they are good enough at protecting the
wildlife.

Environmental legislation is administered by various Government Departments in

various ministries. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, however, administers
most of those acts that deal with the environment directly. 3 For instance, the Parks
and Wildlife Act 4section 38 stipulates that, no person shall hunt in a safari area. It is
also in this light interesting to take note that most of the animals of the big five and all
wildlife is found in safaris as they are being protected by the law and also being used
as tools for tourism. The same statute further gives a feasible punishment to the people
who do not follow this provision, as any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall
be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level seven or to imprisonment
for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment. One
may safely say that this is an example to which the laws clearly protect the big five.
However the law may be present but hunting down of wild animals in the safaris is still
present especially rhinos, elephants for ivory and zebras for their hoofs. This part of
the law needs to be implemented rather than just being on paper as with many other
existing laws.

1
www.southafricaexplorer.co.za/articles/big-five.html
2
ibid.
3
http://unfccc.int/resource/ccsites/zimbab/legislat/legislat.htm
4
Parks and Wildlife Act [chapter 20; 14]
Part IX of the Parks and Wildlife Act is specifically for specially protected animals. It
states that, Control of hunting of specially protected animals and possession or sale
of specially protected animals and products thereof, no person shall hunt any specially
protected animal or keep, have in his possession or sell or otherwise dispose of any
live specially protected animal or the meat or trophy of any such animal. As known,
the big five are on top of the protected animals because they are to be protected as
the pride of Zimbabwe lies within them. The law regulates this activity and therefor
protects the species from being poached and also monitors any activity relating to
ivory. Moreover, the Act requires that any ivory or rhinoceros horn taken within
Zimbabwe's borders be registered with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ivory
has been traded since the colonial period and highly exploited as result amends are
being done by these laws. It is unfortunate to see that in the struggle of ivory control
and hunting down the poachers, the government is failing to capture the criminals. An
exception is of the case of the 2 men who used cyanide to poison the water source
that elephants drank from.

As stated above but not in detail, there was a serious matter to deal with cyanide
poisoning by man poachers as most animals in game parks and safaris have very few
water drinking sources, the men had traced where most elephants drink and other
important animals that have an extent of financial value and poisoned the water
sources, Poaching is really dealing a huge blow in terms of the value for the wild life
resources, while posing a threat on the ability of the tourism sector to generate more
wealth5The depletion of wildlife due to poaching is worrying if we consider its negative
impact on yearly tourism receipts6The Water Act [Chapter 20;21] makes it clear in
section 118 (3) that, Any person who places any poison in any water shall be guilty of
an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level twelve or to imprisonment for a
period not exceeding five years or to both. This caters for the matters that dealt with
cyanide poisoning, the law is against water poisoning at any point because it does not
affect the targeted specie but affects any organism and kills from humans, the
vegetation, scavengers and even the vultures as a similar ordeal was experienced in
2013 aft cyanide poisoning.

5
https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-120063.html
6
Ibid
The Zimbabwean government recognizes the need to include the indigenous
population in policymaking, and, consequently, affords this population a significant
degree of authority concerning environmental issues. This is especially done in areas
of dense wildlife existence. Laws do not merely provide for the regulation of hunting,
but extend to wildlife conservation and wildlife use for various purposes, devising
arrangements for access to resources by different users, with the objective of
sustainable management. This positive trend towards more comprehensive wildlife
legislation has gradually developed over the past three decades.
Alternatively, Zimbabwe may fail to realize fully the threats facing its overall
environmental health. More likely, though, Zimbabwe may lack the political will to
create a highly centralized, fully encompassing bureaucracy to deal with all of the
country's environmental problems.
Zimbabwe consistently has demonstrated that environmental issues cannot be
managed in a vacuum, but require an analysis of the economic, social, cultural,
political, and human health impacts of such issues.7 Rules aiming at the conservation
of wildlife are usually in the form of general statements requiring sustainability, general
prohibitions, and classification of species to be granted varying degrees of protection,
creation of protected areas and the protection of wildlife from negative effects of other
land uses

Elephants are emerging as a cause for the loss of other wildlife species due to the
destruction of vegetation. The elephant population in Zimbabwe currently exceeds its
carrying capacity and there are reports of widespread elephant induced loss of
woodlands in Hwange National Park and other protected areas.as a result, the law on
animal curbing to control the population of elephants has been catered for by the law.
There is a regulation of the killing of a particular specie if its numbers are too high of if
the other populace since there has to be a balance in the ecosystem. However a
contradiction in the law is seen as, solving the problem and avoiding the previous
international criticism associated with its culling operations, the National parks is
auctioning elephants off to game farmers in order to reduce the population pressure 8,

7
Id. at 119; see B. Bowonder, Management of Environment in Developing Countries, 7 ENVIRONMENTALIST
116-17 (1985).
8
Clayton, J., No food, no fuel - but a glut of elephants for sale at £1,000, in The Times (UK). 6 May 2005.
but it is unclear as to whether a single elephant 9 has been sold under this scheme
yet. It was in the context of huge ivory stockpiles from early culling operations that
Zimbabwe successfully lobbied for the resumption in international trade in ivory.
Zimbabwe, expressly recognize ownership of wildlife by the owners of land on which
the animals are found or grant various privileges to landowners. Has often served as
a basis for successful private wildlife management initiatives, a key factor becomes
the security of title to the land, which may remain different between private holdings
and customary communal land. In this case, the feasibility of successful wildlife
management initiatives tends to rely less directly on wildlife legislation, and more on
land legislation and its interrelation with land use customs.

Today Zimbabwe’s wildlife and the environment are threatened at unprecedented

levels due to the rapid social and economic changes occurring in the country due to
mismanagement by its rogue government. The Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES, Washington, 1973) protects
endangered species by restricting and regulating their international trade through
export permit systems. For species threatened with extinction which are or may be
affected by trade export permits may be granted only in exceptional circumstances
and subject to strict requirements. The government definitely takes into account this
convention as section 327 of the constitution that deals with international treaties and
conventions. The constitution makes it clear on how when interpreting the law all the
international conventions and treaties must be taken into account. However the laws
in Zimbabwe its self are not

This then also brings about how the constitution has section 73 to do with the
environmental rights that speaks of how it is the state’s responsibility to take
reasonable legislative and other measures within its limits of the resources available...
Before all other breakdown may be given, section 2 of the constitution which is the
supremacy of the constitution make it clear that the constitution is the supreme law of
the land and all elements must be in line with it or they’ll be invalid to the extent of the
inconsistency. This environmental rights provision faces the barrier of a political nature

69. Wilson, M.,

9
Gratwicke & Stapelkamp: Outpost of Tyranny
which the state is found not meeting its obligation because of the rampant corruption
in the structures of government. This issue of corruption also then shows another way
in which conservation has been a challenge as there are certain procedures which
must be followed to acquire a hunting permit10, however the procedures are rarely paid
as people pay money to get it before the actual and stipulate time and most importantly
no one it’s there to match the permit and the region allowed to trophy hunt.

.The Parks and Wild Life Act generally prohibits the hunting or capture of animals in
a national park unless a license or permit has been duly issued by an appropriate
authority. This is even supported by The Trapping of Animals Control Act11. The act
in section 19 states that, Court shall order payment for trapping of wild animal. This
clearly shows that trapping an animal will not be permitted and if done, the court shall
make that particular individual pay. However, such a law may exist but areas with wild
animals are too big and dense that some who commit those offense may not even be
caught that is why it is as made mention to above that the community must engage in
these activities and thus making it easy to catch some people breaking the laws within
their territories.

In conclusion many of the acts, therefore, may receive only secondary consideration
from a Zimbabwean government that is apparently moving toward a more sustainable
utilization approach to Wildlife management species-based conventions,. The laws of
Zimbabwe have tried by all means to curb the killing of wild animals, as it may in most
cases be difficult to monitor every corner where a wild animal habitats.

10
Parks and Wildlife Act.
11
Chapter 20:21
REFERENCE LIST
www.southafricaexplorer.co.za/articles/big-five.html
http://unfccc.int/resource/ccsites/zimbab/legislat/legislat.htm
Parks and Wildlife Act [chapter 20; 14]
https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-120063.html
Id. at 119; see B. Bowonder, Management of Environment in Developing Countries,
7116-17 (1985)
Clayton, J., No food, no fuel - but a glut of elephants for sale at £1,000, in The Times
(UK). 6 May 2005.
Gratwicke & Stapelkamp: Outpost of Tyranny
Parks and Wildlife Act [Chapter 20;14]