RDCs benefit from ivory auction (Zimbabwe)

NewsNet

17 Mar 2009 

11 Rural District Councils have benefited from the US$500 000 fund that was raised from the auction of ivory last year.

Local authorities who had lawfully accumulated ivory and submitted it for auctioning, were allocated US$85 000.

In an interview the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Acting Director General Mr. Zikhali Chadenga, said the move to assist local authorities is meant to see the communities benefiting from the wildlife surrounding them.

He added that the communities should take a greater responsibility in curbing poaching of wildlife so that the country does not lose foreign currency. 

The communities are set to benefit from revenue, meat, capacity building programmes and donations through the Community Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources Campfire.

Zimbabwe is the second largest country with ivory in the SADC region after Botswana with a population of over 100 thousand elephants.