Zimbabwe's elephant cull plan sparks outrage among activists

The authorities of Zimbabwe have announced a controversial plan. Hunters are to shoot 200 elephants. They intend to send the meat to the people. For animal rights defenders, this idea is absurd.

Sithembiso Nyoni, the Minister of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife in Zimbabwe, announced the shooting of 200 elephants. The government explained that the meat of the animals would be dried and sent to communities affected by a lack of access to protein.

Sithembiso Nyoni admitted, "Zimbabwe has more elephants than our forests can accommodate." The minister also added that Zimbabwe intends to replicate Namibia's initiative, which has already started hunting over 700 wild animals in the fight against hunger, including hippos, buffaloes, zebras, blue wildebeests, antelopes, and elephants. 83 of the latter are planned to be killed.

Hunting elephants in Zimbabwe is to take place in selected, predetermined regions. These are places where large animals come into conflict with people. This also applies to Hwange, the largest nature reserve in the country, home to about 100,000 elephants. Larger populations of these animals are only found in neighbouring Botswana.

The World Food Programme reports that Zimbabwe and four other countries in southern Africa—Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, and Mali—have been severely affected by drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon. This drought has destroyed most of this year's maize and wheat crops, forcing millions of people to face the problem of hunger.

Not everyone agrees with the plans of Zimbabwe and Namibia. They have been met with strong criticism from animal rights defenders. Critics accuse Zimbabwe of not having the primary goal of helping drought victims but of obtaining ivory, which is very expensive.