Zimbabwe: Landuse in Dry Tropical Savannas

Wildlife systems

Private conservancies

The Malilangwe conservation trust

Tucked away in the south-eastern corner of Zimbabwe, within the Limpopo valley ecozone is the Lonestar reserve, 39 658,64ha in extent. It is owned by the Malilangwe trust and operates specifically to provide an enabling environment for nature conservation, education and scientific research. Part of it's operations cover tourism, and money obtained from tourism is to be ploughed back into the reserve to further the conservation, research and ecotourism efforts.

Tourism operations cover game safaris and nature walks on the reserve itself and the adjacent Gonarezhou (the elephant place.) This reserve has several antelope and other big game species.

A number of conservancies have sprung up in this part of Zimbabwe. Malilangwe conservation trust is among the smaller ones with less emphasis on game and photographic safaris. The Save conservancy below is an example of one of the big safari players targeting the booming, wildlife tourism market.

The Save conservancy

This wild life conservancy was established to create a privately owned nature reserve which would be environmentally, commercially and socially sustainable. At the time of it's establishment, early 90's, the conservancy was to be the largest such privately owned conservancy in the world. It was established as a conglomeration of existing privately owned farms, each averaging about 2 500 hectares. All internal fencing was removed. Boundary fencing was maintained in the form of double electrified fencing to stop wild animals from impinging on other conflicting land uses, i.e., crop production and livestock production in the area. Livestock production is particularly susceptible to contacts with buffalo, which carries the devastating foot and mouth disease in cattle. The conservancy covers an area of 3,200km2. The initial estimated wildlife value was US$8 million (1995 figures). Animals found in this area are: 40,000 impala, 11,000 kudus, 5,000 duiker, 2,000 eland, 1,500 zebra, 1,300 wildebeest, 700 elephant, 50 black rhino, and 6 white rhino. Predators like lion, and leopard are found in small numbers.

The conservancy is run as a private limited company (Wild Life Services) and investors provided funding for setting up lodges and to restock the area with wildlife. The area has been hard hit by successive droughts that have reduced the numbers of wildlife. It is expected that the restocking exercise will involve purchasing breeding stock from South Africa across the southern border.

The proponents of the conservancy see it as a Land use model for Africa , based on the conservation of wildlife, the environmental rehabilitation of degraded marginal land on the point of desertification, the preservation of endangered species and the creation of a breeding ground on the border of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

The argument for wildlife as opposed to the more traditional livestock production in the area is that, livestock production is not viable both ecologically and economically. Commercial crop production is not possible commercially without irrigation, as rainfall is low (300 -500 mm per annum).

Ecotourism is envisaged with the surrounding communal area communities. The proponents of the project argue that, every tourist bed creates three jobs. It is argued that, this is much more jobs than livestock production can create in this area. Details on what form the envisaged ecotourism will take are still a bit hazy.