Dynamics and underlying causes of illegal bushmeat trade in Zimbabwe

The prevalence and impacts of the illegal trade in bushmeat are under appreciated in Southern Africa, despite indications that it constitutes a serious conservation threat in parts of the region. Bushmeat trade has emerged as a severe threat to wildlife conservation and the viability of wildlife-based land uses in Zimbabwe during a period of political instability and severe economic decline. We conducted a study around Save´ Valley Conservancy in the South-East Lowveld of Zimbabwe to investigate the dynamics and underlying causes of the bushmeat trade, with the objective of developing solutions. We found that bushmeat hunting is conducted mainly by unemployed young men to generate cash income, used mostly to purchase food. Bushmeat is mainly sold to people with cash incomes in adjacent communal lands and population centres and is popular by virtue of its affordability and availability. Key drivers of the bushmeat trade in the South-East Lowveld include: poverty, unemployment and food shortages, settlement of wildlife areas by impoverished communities that provided open access to wildlife resources, failure to provide stakes for communities in wildlife-based land uses, absence of affordable protein sources other than illegally sourced bushmeat, inadequate investment in anti-poaching in areas remaining under wildlife management, and weak penal systems that do not provide sufficient deterrents to illegal bushmeat hunters. Each of these underlying causes needs to be addressed for the bushmeat trade to be tackled effectively. However, in the absence of political and economic stability, controlling illegal bushmeat hunting will remain extremely difficult and the future of wildlife-based land uses will remain bleak.TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Wilderness Trust, Chicago Board of Trade, and the supporters of the African Wildlife Conservation Fund.http://journals.cambridge.orgab201

Pilot Study of the Role of Pharmacists in the Use of Veterinary Pharmaceutical Products in Harare and Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe

This study was undertaken to investigate the role played by pharmacists in the use of veterinary pharmaceutical products in Harare and Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. A sample of 32 retail pharmacists participated in the study. Twenty-four pharmacists (75 %) stocked and handled a mean of 2.8 Veterinary Pharmaceutical Products per month and 83 % of them rated their knowledge of use of veterinary pharmaceutical products as being poor or little. 66 % of pharmacists did not feel competent handling veterinary pharmaceutical products. Sixty two percent of pharmacists had prepared veterinary pharmaceutical products before and 38 % had never done this. Pharmacists' competence in handling veterinary pharmaceutical products was associated with stocking veterinary pharmaceutical products (

Consequences of animals crossing the edges of transfrontier parks

International audienc

Resource gradients and movements across the edge of transfrontier parks

International audienc

Resource gradients and movements across the edge of transfrontier parks

International audienc

Resource gradients and movements across the edge of transfrontier parks

International audienc