ZANU-PF GOVERNOR FORCING HIMSELF ON AMCIT-OWNED CONSERVANCY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 HARARE 000444 SENSITIVE SIPDIS AF/S FOR B. WALCH DRL FOR N. WILETT ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR M. GAVIN STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN STATE PASS TO FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVIE FOR M. GADD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC SENV PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM CASC ZI SUBJECT: ZANU-PF GOVERNOR FORCING HIMSELF ON AMCIT-OWNED CONSERVANCY REF: 07 Harare 598 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) After years of successfully avoiding land invasions, Zimbabwe's private conservancies now face the threat of forced "indigenous partnerships" that--if carried out--will likely deter further investment and derail significant conservation gains. Under the Wildlife-Based Land Reform Policy--an internally approved policy not backed by legislation--private conservancy owners will allegedly have to give up the titles to their land in exchange for a 25-year lease and must take on "indigenous" partners to own at least 51 percent of the property. Several landowners in the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC),including one American, have been summoned to the Masvingo governor's office to meet the new ZANU-PF-affiliated partners that the governor is attempting to force upon them. Importantly, the SVC is the largest privately-owned wildlife conservancy in Africa and home to about one fifth of Zimbabwe's rhinoceros. Unlike in Zimbabwe's national parks, rhinos have demonstrated high reproduction rates in the SVC thanks largely to the Conservancy's vigorous and expensive anti-poaching and conservation efforts. If these partnerships are forced upon the landowners, continued investment and vigorous anti-poaching efforts will likely wane, further endangering both rhinos and investor confidence in Zimbabwe. END SUMMARY. -------------- Background: Save Valley Conservancy -------------- ¶2. (U) The Save Valley Conservancy (SVC) is a privately-owned wildlife reserve of one million acres in southeastern Zimbabwe, an area commonly referred to as the Lowveld. The Conservancy comprises 22 properties that share a common boundary fence. In the mid-1980s, with the end of cattle ranching subsidies and due to continued outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, landowners hired a consultancy firm to evaluate the economic and environmental feasibility of converting the cattle ranches back to wildlife. The study confirmed the shift could be difficult and expensive at first, but in the long run profitable. During the late 1980s and 1990s, owners pooled their resources and restocked the conservancy by transporting elephants, giraffes, black rhinos, white rhinos, and other big game to the area. ¶3. (U) When SVC was officially formed in 1991, the 18 original owners intended to market photographic tourism. As tourism declined in the past decade, SVC operators began to rely on the more lucrative hunting market for the majority of their revenue. Most of the landowners have small lodges where they operate photographic and hunting safari operations. Working with Zimbabwe's parastatal Qhunting safari operations. Working with Zimbabwe's parastatal National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Parks),the SVC is given a quota of animals for hunting in any given year. -------------- Amcit-Owned Hammond Ranch -------------- ¶4. (SBU) American citizens Weldon and Kathy Schenck purchased one property, Hammond Ranch in 1996, converted it from a cattle ranch HARARE 00000444 002 OF 005 into a game ranch, restocked indigenous animals, and joined the SVC. They received approval from the Zimbabwe Investment Center (ZIC) and met and exceeded all of ZIC's investment and employment criteria. Their ZIC Permit was recently renewed. The Schencks built a safari lodge in 1998 and have since been operating photographic and hunting safaris. Their combined operations at Hammond---including a safari operating and marketing partner--generate a minimum of US$250,000 annually for Zimbabwe. They employ over 40 people full time and more part time, and provide financial and other support to the local communities surrounding Hammond. ¶5. (SBU) Like other SVC landowners, the Schencks have made an effort to help the surrounding communities. For example, the Nyangambe Embroidery Project started by Kathy Schenck in the community adjacent to Hammond to the south provides part time, piece-work jobs to over 600 women in the Nyangambe Resettlement Area. In addition, the Schencks are currently funding the development of a unique wildlife project in which the Nyangambe community has joined the SVC by devoting 7,500 acres of land to wildlife. The Schencks have provided the community with fencing, restocking, anti-poaching, and marketing. The community receives trophy fees, which totaled about US$5,000 last year in addition to the meat from all animals shot on their land. This is a first: direct community involvement by a community in the wildlife industry without inclusion of District Councils (per Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE program - Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) and other higher-ups which often prevent the financial benefits from reaching the community. -------------- Land Reform and Indigenization -------------- ¶6. (U) Because the SVC is conservation land, it has been governed by legislation under the Parks Authority and the Ministry of Environment, which has saved it from fast-track land reform that has redistributed farm land since its inception in 2000. However, under the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act of 2008, all businesses should seek to have majority indigenous partners (reftel),which SVC owners do not have. ¶7. (SBU) Schenck told us that he has been trying to identify local partners since 2002. Last year, working with the Parks Authority, the SVC owners established three possible means to bring on local partners: (1) current owner plus the local community, (2) current owner plus local investor, (3) current owner plus Parks. All of the current owners have a strong desire to bring on additional investors who are committed to wildlife conservation and who understand that Qwho are committed to wildlife conservation and who understand that it is a long-term investment with significant up-front costs and a slow financial return. ¶8. (SBU) However, last year the Ministry of Environment (which continues to be led by Minister Francis Nhema) reportedly adopted a new policy, termed the Wildlife Based Land Reform Policy. (NOTE: After numerous attempts to obtain the policy from the Ministry and Parks, a Parks staffer finally sent us a copy of the policy--a 2004 document that is still marked "draft." He was unaware of any other policy or amendments to this draft document. END NOTE.) One provision of this draft policy states that when land is acquired by the State and re-distributed on a leasehold basis, leases should be between 20 and 99 years. The document further explains that for land that remains freehold (as in Hammond's case) the units should HARARE 00000444 003 OF 005 be owned by companies in order to facilitate the transfer of shareholders to new participants. The policy concludes by saying that new entrepreneurs that wish to take up shareholdings shall be required to purchase the shares in accordance with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (now two ministries, both controlled by ZANU-PF). These applicants will be selected on the basis of their ability to purchase equity in the wildlife business, as well as their knowledge and commitment to the venture. However, a group of ZANU-PF heavyweights in Masvingo have twisted thi policy--which is not terribly egregious on paper--and informed the SVC landowners that they need to take on specific "indigenous partners" and trade in their title deeds in exchange for a 25 year lease. The new partners have not offered to purchase any shares or make any contribution to the conservancy. -------------- Here's Your Partner -------------- ¶9. (SBU) On May 13, Masvingo Governor Titus Maluleke summoned SVC Chairman Clive Stockil and the SVC Vice Chairman to a meeting on May 16 to discuss new partners for the Conservancy. At the meeting, attendees saw, but were not given, lists of new partners for various properties within the SVC. ¶10. (SBU) Several other landowners were summoned to the provincial administrator's office for a May 22 meeting to meet their new partners. The Schenck's local manager, George Hulme, was informed that the new partners for Hammond Ranch would be Governor Maluleke and Lieutenant Colonel David Moyo. In the meeting, the governor explained to Hulme that the inclusive government had agreed that the land reform process would not be reversed and said he was carrying out a policy that could not be reversed. In all, 10 of the 22 properties have been allocated new partners through this program. ¶11. (SBU) Several ZANU-PF heavyweights either attended one of the meetings or were listed as prospective partners. (NOTE: Most or all are affiliated with Emmerson Mnangagwa. END NOTE.) In addition to Governor Maluleke, those involved include: -- Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Stan Mudenge -- Former Masvingo Governor Josiah Hungwe -- Director of Conservation in the Parks Authority Vitalis Chadenga. Chadenga was involved in the uncompensated takeover of another American-owned conservancy in Midlands province in 2002. -- Major General Engelbert Rugeje, Chief of Staff to the Zimbabwean Army. Rugeje was previously reported to us for his involvement in election-related violence in 2008, particularly for use of the Army in intimidating and coercing voters. -- Chiredzi South MP Aaron Baloyi. In 2001, Baloyi and a group of Q-- Chiredzi South MP Aaron Baloyi. In 2001, Baloyi and a group of war vets abducted and held a group of game wardens hostage for three days while they looted a white-owned farm. -- Former Chipinge South MP Enock Porusingazi. Porusingazi is notorious for using violence in Chipinge South. He was most recently involved in bringing a case against the current MP, Mathias Mlambo, for obstruction of justice in April 2009. -- Former Gutu South MP and Former Deputy Minister of Youth Shuvai Mahofa. ¶12. (SBU) The current landowners plan to use their usual strategy of not signing anything and avoiding direct confrontation while seeking diplomatic and other advocacy to stop the attempted forced partnerships. One particularly vocal German property owner has HARARE 00000444 004 OF 005 received assurances from Secretary to the Prime Minister Ian Makone that Minister Nhema has confirmed that no partners will be forced on operators. According to Makone, Nhema confirmed this arrangement to Tsvangirai before the May 22 meeting in Masvingo. ¶13. (SBU) Even if the MDC and ZANU-PF figureheads in Harare have worked out an arrangement, it appears the ZANU-PF provincial authorities in Masvingo are carrying on with their mission to impose themselves on SVC owners. Given that the proposed governor for Masvingo province, Lucia Matibenga, is from the MDC, it appears the current governor is trying to push the partnerships along quickly before Matibenga is sworn in. Tsvangirai has said the new governors will be sworn in "at the soonest opportunity." -------------- -------------- Rhinos Thrive on Private Land, Face Poachers Elsewhere -------------- -------------- ¶14. (U) In addition to the obvious concerns about these forced business partnerships, wildlife stands to lose as well. Thanks largely to the expensive protection and anti-poaching efforts by SVC landowners, wildlife has thrived in the Conservancy. The rhino population, in particular, has demonstrated exceptional growth rates of 8-10 percent annually in the SVC and other privately-owned conservancies in the Lowveld (normal levels are 2-5 percent). Currently, over 70 percent of Zimbabwe's remaining rhinos live in the Lowveld conservancies, and 20 percent live in the SVC alone. In fact, when we visited the SVC in March, we were fortunate enough to see two of Zimbabwe's remaining 282 white rhinos. ¶15. (SBU) Unfortunately, poaching pressure has dramatically increased in the last three years. According to Raoul du Toit, a rhino expert with the World Wildlife Fund in Harare, Zimbabwe's rhino population declined from 846 in 2005 to 805 in 2008. Given the high rates of reproduction, Zimbabwe's population should have been about 980 at the end of 2008, leading him to estimate that 175 rhinos were lost to poaching during that three year period. ¶16. (SBU) Remarkably, of the more than thirty suspected poachers who have been arrested not one has been convicted, even when they have confessed or there has been ballistic evidence. For example, in December, poachers were caught at a roadblock near Masvingo with an AK-47 rifle and cartridges. The pair admitted to having the gun illegally. The gun had been seen earlier near a site where a rhino was shot, and there were marks in the ground where the rifle had been partially buried near the rhino. However, some evidence was not presented in trial and they were mysteriously acquitted of Qnot presented in trial and they were mysteriously acquitted of possessing an arm of war. ¶17. (SBU) Poaching has been most predominant in Zimbabwe's national parks and communal lands where Parks guides lack the resources to conduct effective anti-poaching patrols. Conservationists fear that if these partnerships go through, investors will not have the resources or will to continue funding expensive anti-poaching efforts. In addition, some believe that ZANU-PF heavyweights in the police, military, and Parks (e.g. Chadenga) are behind the corruption that is believed to be behind the lack of poaching convictions. ¶18. (SBU) In March 2009, the Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) contacted Zimbabwean authorities asking them to prepare an evaluation of Zimbabwe's rhino population and anti-poaching efforts in advance of HARARE 00000444 005 OF 005 next year's CITES conference. If rhino poaching continues to increase and enforcement is lax, Zimbabwe may face consequences at the CITES conference. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶19. (SBU) While the inclusive government continues to tout its success in achieving unity and moving forward with "problem" issues, we continue to see cases of the old guard acting as if nothing has changed as they continue with arbitrary arrests, politically trumped-up charges, and land seizures. The saga in the Save Valley does not surprise us, but it certainly does disappoint. Ironically, the Minister of Tourism is hosting a conference in a few weeks on Tourism Investor Confidence; we hope the Save issue will be raised as a barrier to investment. Although we can hold out hope that respect for property rights and rhinos will win the day, we know better than to expect ZANU-PF to do the right thing. In all likelihood, the landowners in SVC will face long, drawn out battles with their new forced partners as they wait for the implementation of pro-business and pro-conservation policies in Zimbabwe. MCGEE