US embassy cable - 04HARARE655

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000655 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
USDOC FOR AMANDA HILLIGAS 
TREASURY FOR OREN WYCHE-SHAW 
PASS USTR FLORIZELLE LISER 
STATE PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, EAID, BTIO, EINV, ECON, PGOV, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: Land Reform Threatens Wildlife 
 
Ref: Harare 579 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: After a decade of rescuing endangered 
species, Save (pronounced SA-vay) Valley now weighs its 
own extinction.  Robert Mugabe's land redistribution has 
gradually spilled into this conservancy, Africa's largest 
private wildlife reserve.  The conservancy would be an 
important component of a viable Transfrontier Park 
(linking Zimbabwe with Mozambique and South Africa).  In 
the hands of small-scale farmers or operators uncommitted 
to sustainable hunting, however, this unique Zimbabwean 
experiment in eco-management is unlikely to survive.  End 
summary. 
 
Model of Sustainable Conservation Tourism 
----------------------------------------- 
2. (SBU) Econoff visited Save Valley on April 16, meeting 
with Manager Clive Stockil and multiple owners/managers. 
The conservancy encompasses 3,420 square kilometers in 
southeastern Zimbabwe.  Created in 1992, Save Valley has 
been resoundingly successful in reintroducing wildlife on 
former cattle land.  The conservancy now has the largest 
population of black rhino in the country and wild dog in 
southern Africa - both endangered species.  Save Valley 
has bred elephants to abundance and supplies them to 
reserves in neighboring countries.  Fourteen separate 
property owners - including an American couple - have 
established a constitution and administration for the 
conservancy.  (There are also German, Italian and South 
African owners.) 
 
3. (SBU) The GOZ has already redistributed land to small- 
scale farmers in southern portion Save Valley, encircling 
the U.S.-owned property, Hammond Ranch.  An internal GOZ 
paper goes further, recommending nationalization for Save 
Valley and all other private conservancies (ref).  The 
GOZ has listed, then delisted, Hammond Ranch for 
acquisition on several occasions.   Along Hammond's 
borders but still within Save Valley, we observed few 
crops surrounding the huts of the many small-scale (A1) 
farmers.  Instead, most settlers appear to be poaching 
wildlife, including endangered species, while surviving 
on donor food. 
 
4. (SBU) The economic consequences of a GOZ expropriation 
of Save Valley are significant, since the conservancy - 
through Malilangwe Reserve and Gonarezhou National Park - 
links Zimbabwe with Mozambique and South Africa in the 
ambitious but unrealized (on the Zimbabwean side) 
Transfrontier Park.  Zimbabwe's tourist sector, whose 
revenue has tumbled from US$140 to 44 million since 1999, 
probably holds the country's most rapid rebound 
potential.  If the Save Valley area were nationalized, 
consequences for conservation and future investment are 
also likely to be negative. 
 
A Top-Down Indigenization Plan 
---------------------------------- 
5. (SBU) Save Valley Manager Stockil claims to have 
negotiated a deal with Special Affairs Minister John 
Nkomo for an alternate means of integrating black owners. 
The conservancy would incorporate and include black-owned 
firm Traditions as a minority partner.  The GOZ could 
make Traditions a majority partner by ceding to the firm 
unproductive land from surrounding areas.  The fourteen 
Save Valley owners would retain their properties but a 
diminished stake of the incorporated conservancy.  The 
GOZ would agree to remove - and no longer resettle - A1 
farmers in Save Valley. 
 
6. (SBU) For its part, the GOZ could take credit for a 
successful indigenization model that can be applied to 
country's other conservancies.  This may someday 
facilitate a quicker economic recovery.  The GOZ's 
redistribution of farmland has already knocked 75 percent 
of the productivity out of a once robust agrarian sector. 
More levelheaded GOZ officials - possibly Nkomo - may 
have second thoughts about using the same formula for 
safari areas. 
 
Comment 
------- 
7. (SBU) When pressed, Save Valley owners admit it's 
tough to bet on this Government taking the rational 
course on a highly-charged land matter.  They are 
negotiating with Traditions because they have no better 
option.  Nkomo himself pitched Traditions to them as a 
potential business partner, causing Save Valley owners to 
wonder whether the aging minister has a personal stake. 
Such shared ownership is obviously preferable to 
pulverization of the conservancy (i.e., redistribution to 
small-scale farmers for maize and cattle production - and 
poaching).  On the other hand, the owners worry that 
Traditions Chairman Charles Mugari, a retired army 
colonel, wants to boost revenues and grant more hunting 
permits.  Hunting is Save Valley's most profitable 
activity, but the present owners do not believe it will 
be sustainable if permitted more liberally.  Owners could 
realize unprecedented profits for several years by 
allowing unrestrained hunting, but would likely destroy 
the conservancy in the process.  Still, if the non- 
hunting safari tourists ever return to Zimbabwe, the 
conservancy could sustainably increase the number of 
available beds at lodges from 300 to 1,000.  But that, in 
all probability, would require ever-elusive progress on 
the political and human rights front. 
 
Sullivan