The impact of land reform on the status of large carnivores in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Large carnivores are decreasing in number due to growing pressure from an expanding human population. It is increasingly recognised that state-protected conservation areas are unlikely to be sufficient to protect viable populations of large carnivores, and that private land will be central to conservation efforts. In 2000, a fast-track land reform programme (FTLRP) was initiated in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to redress the racial imbalance in land ownership, but which also had the potential to break up large areas of carnivore habitat on private land. To date, research has focused on the impact of the FTLRP process on the different human communities, while impacts on wildlife have been overlooked. Here we provide the first systematic assessment of the impact of the FTLRP on the status of large carnivores. Spoor counts were conducted across private, resettled and communal land use types in order to estimate the abundance of large carnivores, and to determine how this had been affected by land reform. The density of carnivore spoor differed significantly between land use types, and was lower on resettlement land than on private land, suggesting that the resettlement process has resulted in a substantial decline in carnivore abundance. Habitat loss and high levels of poaching in and around resettlement areas are the most likely causes. The FTLRP resulted in the large-scale conversion of land that was used sustainably and productively for wildlife into unsustainable, unproductive agricultural land uses. We recommended that models of land reform should consider the type of land available, that existing expertise in land management should be retained where possible, and that resettlement programmes should be carefully planned in order to minimise the impacts on wildlife and on people.

The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it means for conservation

“…For example, in Zimbabwe, where cheetah distribution is relatively well-known, cheetah were distributed across a contiguous population encompassing 132,931 km 2 in 2007, which contracted to a fragmented population occupying only 49,124 km 2 by 2015 (16,20,21). This 63% range contraction over a short period, equivalent to a loss of 11% of distributional range per year, was largely because of the disappearance of cheetah outside PAs associated with major changes in land tenure (22). The Zimbabwean cheetah population is also estimated to have declined by at least 85% between 1999 and 2015 (20), equivalent to an annual decline of 13%.…”

“…Similarly, there have been recent large-scale extinctions of cheetah across western and central Africa (23,24). Ongoing rapid change is likely across the African continent because of changes in land tenure (22), large-scale fencing (25), land grabs (26), and political instability (27). However, cheetah status in areas where they are most threatened is usually uncertain, because those areas lack data.…”

Simplified large African carnivore density estimators from track indices

“…Boast & Houser (2012) resolved this problem for leopard by using the formula from Stander (1998) to estimate leopard densities at low track densities. Williams (2011) and Williams et al (2016) opted to use the lion and wild dog model from Stander (1998) to estimate carnivore densities, although this model is based on only four data points.…”

Trophy Hunting, Conservation, and Rural Development in Zimbabwe: Issues, Options, and Implications

“…In some cases, the private areas also take advantage of trophy hunting and create side business such as bush meat sales [103] and biltong manufacturing [104,105]. Considering the lack of studies on trophy International Journal of Biodiversity [80,106]. Other private conservation areas such as the Bubiana and Chiredzi River Valley conservancies were greatly affected, as these were almost totally fragmented and converted into small scale farms [107,108].…”

“…Based on the opinions from interviewed experts, five emerging issues that may affect the trophy hunting industry were identified and these were all commensurate with the literature reviewed. The identified critical emerging issues arising from wildlife conservation that may affect the sustainability of trophy hunting as a practice at national or local level include (1) continuous population decline of key species in their usual range [37,122,123], (2) illegal hunting [38,84,124], habitat loss, and fragmentation [40,125], (3) human population growth and encroachment into wildlife habitats [126,127], (4) redundant quota setting approaches, wildlife-based land reform policies [80,106,128,129], and (5) poor conservation financing and reduced law enforcement capacity [84,96]. In Zimbabwe, at local or national scale, these issues occur in three land tenure systems in various forms and magnitude and do cascade to regional and global scales (Figure 4).…”