Zimbabwe Parks Authority Decision To Cull Elephants Opposed
June 06, 2025
By Wallace Mawire
The Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has strongly opposed a decision to cull 50 elephants under the guise of “management.”
The organization said culling is a cruel, outdated response to ecological challenges. They have called for humane, science-based alternatives that protect both wildlife and communities.
The organization said the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) announced a decision to authorize the killing of 50 elephants in Save Valley Conservancy under the guise of population control.
It said it is deeply concerned with the regressive and unethical move, which threatens wildlife conservation efforts, undermines community engagement and jeopardizes Zimbabwe’s tourism-dependent economy.
‘At a time when humane, science-based alternatives exist, resorting to lethal measures is both unjustifiable and dangerous,” they said.
It said while they acknowledge the ecological pressures within Save Valley Conservancy and the challenges posed by elephant overpopulation, they reject culling as a legitimate, ethical or science-backed solution.
They said culling is a violent, short-term fix that disregards the complex social structures of elephant herds, risks traumatizing surviving animals and ultimately fails to address the root causes of habitat stress and human-elephant conflict.
‘We reiterate similar concerns we raised in 2024 when the government announced plans to cull 200 elephants in a similarly controversial move. Killing wild animals that are the basis for the tourism economy threatens sustainable livelihoods,” they said.
CNRG said in Zimbabwe, tourism is the third largest economic sector and contributed US$433 million to the country`s GDP.
They said the industry is heavily reliant on healthy wildlife populations and intact protected areas and could suffer significantly from the culling of wild animals.
They said further culling elephants is a major policy reversal, adding that it was carried out in Zimbabwe and South Africa between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s and was abandoned after heavy criticism because of the cruelty and trauma inflicted on the highly intelligent and social animals.
They said the statement by ZimParks fails to clarify how the culling will be conducted and whether they target entire herds or which criteria they will use to select the elephants kill.
‘Shooting elephants causes distress to their families and can significantly exacerbate human wildlife conflict. At a time organizations like CNRG are working hard to promote human wildlife co-existence, the proposed culling exercise comes as a major setback,’ they said.
The organization said it is a flawed Justification ZimParks cites as an ecological carrying capacity of 800 elephants, with the current population at 2550.
They said such carrying capacity models are often contested, outdated and based on narrow ecological calculations that ignore broader landscape-level dynamics and climate variability.
They said wildlife does not recognize artificial boundaries and isolating Save Valley from the broader ecological system reduces conservation to spreadsheet arithmetic.
On existing alternatives CNRG said which have been ignored over the past five years, the Conservancy translocated 200 elephants.
They said it is commendable, but far from the scale required.
They said what is needed is a national strategy on elephant range expansion, ecological corridors and increased investment in transboundary elephant conservation.
They said contraceptive methods, community engagement and landscape restoration offer far more humane and sustainable options than state-sanctioned killing.
They said they are alarmed by the quiet commodification of the exercise.
They add that the planned distribution of elephant meat to communities masks what may be a veiled effort to generate ivory stockpiles.
CNRG said Zimbabwe’s ongoing lobbying for ivory trade has long cast doubt on the government’s commitment to ethical conservation.
They said turning elephants into meat and trophies under the label of “management” betrays both heritage and moral responsibility to future generations.
They said they are also concerned that the proposed culls ultimately serve the interests of those who stand to benefit from the commercial exploitation of threatened wildlife populations.
They said true conservation must be rooted in justice for communities, for wildlife and for ecosystems.
They said the militarized and extractive approach to wildlife governance that continues to exclude communities from decision-making will only escalate conflict and deepen mistrust.
They have called upon ZimParks to immediately halt the planned culling of elephants in Save Valley and withdraw plans to cull elephants and instead use their available resources to implement existing, well-proven, alternative, sustainable and humane measures to tackle the current challenges facing both people and wildlife, to convene a transparent, multi-stakeholder dialogue on ethical elephant management for human-wildlife coexistence, while also protecting increasingly threatened wildlife populations,invest in non-lethal, community-based conservation strategies grounded in scientific research and local knowledge,develop a national strategy on elephant range expansion, ecological corridors and increase investment in transboundary elephant conservation.
CNRG said Zimbabwe’s elephants are not surplus biomass to be disposed of for convenience.
They said they are sentient beings, ecological engineers and national treasures whose future must not be traded for short-term expediency.
