Zimbabwe's rich biodiversity provides a haven for many species of flora and fauna to survive and thrive.
Tasked with the protection, management, and administration of the wildlife of Zimbabwe, the Parks & Wildlife Management Authority has a proud history of sound management in conservation since 1975.
Given the large and expansive resource under our stewardship, this responsibility cannot be achieved in isolation.
Our network of protected areas, conservancies, and trans-frontier parks ensures that we share the load.
Howbeit, our success comes at a cost.
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The proliferation of wildlife populations and subsequent encroachment into human habitats brings about pressure on scarce resources with potentially fatal consequences.
Early Foundations of Wildlife Management
Zimbabwe's Game Reserves were initially founded as a means of using unproductive land.
Little regard was given to modern conservation values, but once these evolved, the country became a world leader in wildlife management.
One beneficial legacy of colonialism was the Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975, a quintessential breakthrough for conservation.
The first proclaimed Game Reserve was Wankie (now Hwange NP), formed in 1928 and upgraded in the 1949 National Parks Act.
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Luxury Safari Lodges in Hwange National Park | Authentic Zimbabwe Safari | Africa Incoming
The then-Rhodesia's Game section was originally formed in 1952 as a subsidiary of the Department of Mines, Lands and Surveys.
This was the nucleus that became the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in 1964.
The Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975
The core philosophy of how people perceived wildlife was changed.
Under the Act, ownership of wildlife passed from the State to whoever owned the land the animal lived on.
When the landowners (both communal and private) became custodians of the wildlife, a change in mindset occurred.
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People began to see their wildlife resources as an asset to be nurtured, ensuring their benefits continued into the future.
Gradually, fence-breaking elephant and zebra were not viewed as nuisances to be eradicated; herds of impala were no longer a quick, easy meal.
Within the Parks and Wildlife Act, various levels were defined at which state-owned land was to be protected and utilized.
Gone was the old Game Department that issued hunting licenses which, for a nominal fee, allowed settlers to hunt wildlife in all areas but a few Game Reserves.
A system of National Parks, Botanical Reserves and Gardens, Sanctuaries, recreational Parks and Safari Areas was set firmly in place.
Since 1975, the Act has been amended and refined, allowing the evolution of a dynamic wildlife-protection process.
Many African countries have since adopted this philosophy.
So far-reaching was the concept of the original Act that it now enshrines many aspects of grass-roots conservation being implemented worldwide.
Communal or traditional tribal areas and privately-owned land were also categorized for different levels of utilization.
CAMPFIRE: A Community-Based Conservation Strategy
Communal areas harboring significant wildlife resources or bordering National Parks were given Rural Council status and as a result CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources) was born.
CAMPFIRE has developed into an important conservation strategy, ensuring that significant financial earnings revert to rural communities for their benefit.
This philosophy has been adopted on a Pan-African basis and is slowly being implemented in Asia and South America too.
Zimbabwe's National Parks
Many of Zimbabwe's National Parks, such as Victoria Falls, Mana Pools, and Hwange, are renowned worldwide, though the country also has lesser-known gems such as Chizarira and Gonarezhou.
Parts of the Rhodes Estate, established in Rhodes' will of 1902, were bequeathed to the nation for farming, forestry, and agricultural research.
This land later became part of the rocky Matobo and mountainous Nyanga National Parks.
Zimbabwe's Parks offer a wide variety of accommodation, and it is best to check availability with the Parks Department Reservations Office in Harare (popular parks, such as Mana Pools, get booked up).
Accommodation varies from fully equipped lodges, cottages and chalets, to camping and caravan facilities.
The 1975 Act not only nurtured a change in attitudes to wildlife but also fostered the development of one of Africa's best tourism infrastructures.
It saw the need for experienced and trained professional guides and hunters (another much-copied initiative), the establishment of long-term leases for operators in both National Parks and Safari Areas, the development of conservancies on private land and co-operation with rural communities.
It was the precursor for eco-tourism in the truest sense.
Challenges and Future Directions
However, the Department of National Parks has always been a 'Cinderella' branch of government and has had to contend with under-funding - a grave error of judgment when one considers the Parks' earning capacity.
In recent years the Department has been granted parastatal status whereby it is able to retain a significant proportion of the revenues it generates, in theory at least.
The current volatile situation within Zimbabwe and the resultant reduction in tourism will have serious consequences for the running and maintenance of the National Parks and the wildlife they are supposed to protect.
One immediate result of the past year's turmoil has been a harrowing increase in poaching in many NPs.
Unless this stops soon, the NPs may not be the backbone of the country's economic recovery.
AWF's Contribution to Zimbabwe's Conservation
AWF’s contribution to Zimbabwe’s conservation journey began in 2001.
AWF's large landscape approach emphasizes conservation of ecological systems defined by factors such as watersheds, wildlife habitat, and migration corridors versus political boundaries.
At the national level, we highlighted the value of wildlife and wild lands to national economic planning through an economic analysis developed in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment.
Released in 2023, the Zimbabwe Biodiversity Economy report revealed that nature, through non-timber forest products, ecotourism, ecosystem services, forestry, and fisheries, contributes approximately US$2 billion annually to the nation’s economy.
Beginning in the early 2000s, AWF supported the government of Zimbabwe in a game-changing conservation approach that shifted management of wildlife resources from government-led programs to community-led initiatives.
Known as CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources), the approach has since become a model for other countries.
In the early 2000s, AWF identified Kazungula, a transboundary landscape in western Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.
Our work there included researching and mapping wildlife movements, developing tourism and other enterprise models, developing the capacity of local communities, fostering transboundary collaboration, and contributing to species conservation.
This work laid the foundation that partners built on to develop the formal KAZA Transboundary Frontier Conservation Area.
Today, it is the largest land-based transboundary conservation area in the world, spanning five countries (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).
Within the conservation area, in 2014-2015, AWF supported the development of a ten-year (2016-2026) management plan to guide wildlife authorities in how to sustainably manage Zimbabwe’s largest national park, Hwange National Park.
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