Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe will soon sell the right to shoot as many as 500 elephants this year in a bid to assist with conservation.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZIMPARKS) spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo, told CNN Thursday that declining tourism revenue owing to the coronavirus pandemic was among the main reasons for the move. Farawo said:
We eat what we kill. We have a budget of about $25 million for our operations which is raised — partly — through sports hunting, but you know tourism is as good as dead at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zimbabwe has often argued that it was failing to conserve the parks hence the need to allow hunters to shoot elephants sell some as their population was fast rising.
Last year, there were plans to introduce birth control measures to address the ballooning elephant population in the country.
More: Pindula News; CNN
