Dear Supporters

Apologies to all of you for the delay in getting this latest VFAPU report out - I have had a few technical hitches to deal with of late.

The picture says it all. Poaching is a unsustainable menace that we have to deal with. The Earth's natural resources are the foundation to all life and we must strive to do what we can to conserve them. At the end of the day, the state of our environment will determine our own level of prosperity. It is therefore vital for the Victoria Falls Anti Poaching Unit, through your valuable support, to continue to contribute in some way to environmental conservation awareness and protection.

There have been numerous incidents of poaching since my last update, with elephants being hit hard in particular. Losses of eland, buffalo, hyena, impala, warthogs plus the continued loss of indigenous hardwoods have been recorded. On the positive side, 346 snares more have been recovered from the bush by our scouts and 16 further arrests have been made. Thus, during the last seven years of VFAPU being in operation, we have now removed just over 17,100 snares from our operational area and have arrested a total of 223 poachers (more serious offenders).

To relate all these above-mentioned incidents would take some time, but to give you all an idea of a typical week with the unit, I will relate extracts from our daily record book, in which the scouts fill out their patrol reports -

• " Arrested two persons for fishing without National Parks permits and handed them over to authorities. Reports have come in of a buffalo which is carrying a snare around the neck. Searched the Big tree area and located a further 2 snares, but no buffalo seen. Advised Mr Brightman who has the darting team on stand-by."

• "On patrol with Mr Brightman, covering Mkukubuyu area. Found a female kudu which had been poached and butchered. 3 wire snares and 1 cable snare located and removed. Moved to William's Valley to do a sweep of the spring line, where we met the wounded buffalo which chased us for some time. The condition of the buffalo is poor. No darting team available at this time."

• "Located the buffalo, which has died from wounds from wire snare. Hyenas and vultures have eaten most of the carcass. Reported death to national Parks."

• " 32 wire snares located in the Chamabonda Vlei. Set up ambush and arrested one poacher who came to check the snares. Further sweeps of the area discovered that two buffalo cows, one kudu bull, two spotted hyena and one impala ram were killed by this gang of poachers, who had been selling the meat to communities in Victoria Falls town."

• " Informant tipped us off of a man selling bush meat in the township. Located this man and arrested him for selling game meat without an official permit. The meat was from a buffalo which had been poached in the rural areas of Matetsi."

• "At the Fuller Forest north ridge, 11 cable snares set for buffalo were discovered. Waited for in ambush but no one came, so removed snares after waiting for two days."

• " Elephant bull reported to be in bad health. Together with National Parks, our team located this elephant at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge waterhole, where it was decided to destroy the elephant, as it was suffering. Post mortem indications were that the elephant had been previously shot in the lungs."

• "Two men arrested after being caught in our ambush. They had laid 25 wire snares in William's Valley. We took the men to the National Parks Authority, where they received a Z$500,000.00 fine each or thirty days imprisonment."

• "One man arrested for chopping down two Pod Mahogany trees to use for curio carvings. Paid a Z$100,000.00 fine to National Parks Authority"

• "Five elephants shot and their tusks were removed by Zambian poachers in the Matetsi area".

These reports will hopefully give you an idea of what VFAPU is up against and what we are able to achieve. Once again, I reiterate, we realise that we will never be able to stop poaching, but we can not stand back and watch. We are all part of the environment in which we live and our actions and decisions will determine the state of the environment now and in the future. There are no easy answers or immediate solutions but let us all work together to achieve our conservation goals.

VFAPU is proud to have been awarded the Green Globe 21 award for efforts toward conservation in Zimbabwe, as voted by the Zimbabwe Council for Tourism. This is now the third time we have had this honour.

VFAPU is in need. With Zimbabwe's escalating inflation rampant, it is extremely hard updating equipment and replacing uniforms. The task of getting vehicle spares and fuel is costly mission. The scout salaries have to increase every two months in order to afford the costs of living. Please assist VFAPU however you can. Every little bit helps.

Thank you to ALL our supporters, without whom, our work would not be possible. Please contact me should you require any further information.

© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner)

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